The Happy Prince (15A) Rupert Everett has been fascinated by Oscar Wilde for most of his life. He’s acted in many of his plays on Broadway and played his alter ego in films like The Importance of Being Ernest and An Ideal Husband. He also played Wilde himself in David Hare’s The Judas Kiss on the West…
The Little Book of Dog Quotes edited by Aubrey Malone (Barzipan Publishing, £8.95) The world is divided, as we all know, into cat people and dog people. Being myself a dog person, I found this little book amusing. The world, according to P.G. Wodehouse, is divided into those who can stop a dog fight and those who…
Beyond the Breakwater: Memories of Home by Catherine Foley (Mercier Press, €14.99) In these essays and short stories Catherine Foley reveals a great deal about herself and her social environment. This collection is a delightful gathering, and its content is every bit as authentic as Alice Taylor’s To School Through the Fields. Catherine spent her early…
National Gallery of Ireland Print Gallery Drawing Dublin exhibition curated by Anne Hodge (Curator of Prints and Drawings) and Niamh MacNally (Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings) The three rooms of the Print Gallery in the NGI are currently devoted to a most interesting exhibition, one filled with unusual and little seen images of the…
Wisdom at the Crossroads: The Life and Thought of Michael Paul Gallagher SJ by Thomas G. Casey SJ (Messenger Publications, €12.95) Anthony Redmond The well-known writer, educator and theologian, Fr Michael Paul Gallagher SJ died from cancer on November 6, 2015. He was a brilliant, kind gentleman in the true sense of the word. I had…
I was in the need of some good news stories last week, something to lift the spirits and restore some pride in the country. Nationwide (RTÉ1) provided the goods as it often does, in its own low key way, and with unfailing respect for its subjects. On Monday night they had a special show on the…
The World of Books Felix M. Larkin Even work on the scale of the new four-volume Cambridge History of Ireland (£350.00) cannot hope to be fully comprehensive. Nevertheless, the absence of a chapter on Irish newspapers in the History is quite remarkable. There is a chapter in volume four on broadcasting, but nothing specifically…
Pat O’Kelly Brainchild of the ubiquitous John O’Conor, the Dublin International Piano Competition celebrated its 30th birthday last month with the 11th of its triennial events held at both the RDS and National Concert Hall. The 2018 competition, with its €15,000 first prize, together with a series of recitals in Ireland and overseas including…
Achill: The Island poems by John F. Deane, paintings by John Behan (Currach Press, €19.99 /£14.99) John F. Deane is that rarity, a modern Irish poet deeply inspired in his poetry by what he calls in his introduction “the wonders of the Christian faith”. He himself was born on Achill Island in 1943, and his childhood…
Mystics: the beauty of prayer by Craig Larkin SM (Columba Press, €12.99) This is book was originally published two years ago in New Zealand under the title Inner Music: Living a Life in God. The title of the splendid new Irish edition gives a better idea perhaps of what the book contains – short essays on…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan