Ireland: Mapping the Island, by Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson (Birlinn, £30.00 / €34.99) These days we take maps, and the knowledge of the real world that they display, very much for granted. This was always the case as this marvellous compendium of Ireland’s history as evidenced in cartography reveals. The first printed map of…
Across the Waves, by T. Ryle Dwyer (Mercier Press, €14.50) It is clear who is the heroine in this story. It is Margaret Harrigan, a heroine taken straight from the life of the author’s own family. T. Ryle Dwyer is well known throughout the south-west as a journalist and historian. It is quite a saga.…
Face to Face: The Theology of the Icon, by Aidan Hart (Gracewing, £9.95 / €11.50) The title is, of course, as allusion to the text of St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see as in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then…
The Writings of Padraic Colum: “That Queer Thing, Genius”, edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O’Sullivan (Routledge Studies in Irish Literature, £135.00 / €156.00) There was a time, long, long ago, when Padraic Colum was one of the most quoted by heart poets in Ireland, a man whose words were happily on the lips of…
A few of last week’s programmes were more food for thought than fuel for anger or frustration. I was happy with that! Sunday Morning Live (BBC One) returned recently, with our own Cara O’Brien subbing as co-host with Sean Fletcher. Last Sunday morning, discussing climate change, I wondered how the balance of views would work…
None of the classics are safe anymore. Hedda (R) is the latest one to receive a makeover. Dia Da Costa has transplanted the feminist fable Hedda Gabler from Henrik Ibsen’s Norway to a 1950s English manor. The text has been changed to make it relevant for the #MeToo era. With all these iterations are we…
A Divine Calling: One Woman’s Life-Long Battle for Equality in the Catholic Church, by Soline Humbert, foreword by Mary McAleese (The Liffey Press, €19.95 / £17.95) This book arrived for review at about the same time that it was announced that Dame Sarah Mullally was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Her elevation brings into focus the…
Picasso’s long life of creative achievement Of all 20th century artists the work of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is perhaps the most easily recognised. But for the ordinary gallery goer getting to see his important works of art usually involves a great deal of travelling from Paris and Madrid to Moscow and Tokyo and other far-flung…
In recent years immigration has been one of the thorniest topics around, and it drives polarisation big time. Spotlight: Why Are We Not Welcome? (BBC Two NI, Wednesday) explored a recent wave of racist and sectarian violence in North Belfast and Ballymena. Conor Spackman’s report told of how sectarian violence was still an issue, with…
Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is the charming villain at the heart of Roofman (R). In real life, Manchester robbed 45 McDonalds restaurants between 1998 and 2000. That’s what I said: 45. He was caught and imprisoned in 2000 but escaped four years later, taking on the identity of a government agent called John Zorn. He…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone