Judging Redmond and Carson: comparative Irish lives by Alvin Jackson (Royal Irish Academy, €30) Felix M. Larkin This dual biography by one of Ireland’s most distinguished historians, Professor Alvin Jackson of Edinburgh University, is premised on the notion that – to quote its author – “the parallel lives of great rivals or great antagonists (or great friends)…
The Cured (15A) If we draw a line from, say, King Kong to The Elephant Man, we can see a pattern. The mistreated ‘beasts’ become the victims of corporate forces trying to wipe them out. In such cases our sympathies lie foursquare behind such pariahs. The problem with The Cured, which focuses on a group of…
At this stage it probably goes without saying that Gaudate et Exsultate, the Pope’s new exhortation on holiness in ordinary life, was always going to be dismissed by some as like the proverbial curate’s egg: good in parts. Writing at catholicworldreport.com, for instance, in a piece headed ‘Pope Francis “takes aim” in Gaudete et Exsultate…
The sense of dread that came over me when Donald Trump was elected President of the USA was heightened considerably last week. There were silly tweets from him about launching missiles “nice, new and smart”, after the reported gas attacks near Damascus. In a sleepless moment last Friday night, on an extended Newsroom programme (BBC…
The Redmonds and Waterford: A Political Dynasty, 1891 – 1952 by Pat McCarthy (Four Courts Press 2018, €29.95 pb) John Redmond inaugurated the Redmond political dynasty when he was returned to the House of Commons for New Ross in December 1881. It would remain in place until 1952. A native of Wexford, he was…
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Penguin Ireland, €16) Peter Hegarty In a congenial, fascinating book neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blackmore explores the wondrous malleability of the human brain. The brain is continually changing and adapting. If I took up juggling, the part of my brain that co-ordinates the movement of my…
Churchill & Ireland by Paul Bew (Oxford: Oxford University Press) £9.99pb Ian d’Alton One of the problems that an historian faces is the asymmetric. In the case of Britain and Ireland, that is particularly acute. The Irish see Britain through the telescope the right way round. It looms large in our consciousness. Most Britons, though, look…
The World of Books by the books editor A bout in bed with one of those picked-up bugs that linger on, has allowed me to read some books that I ought to have read, or reread, ages ago. I can leave the rereads for now, for one the reads was extraordinarily interesting and revealing. This…
Pat O’Kelly Hopefully Friday, April 13, 2018 will prove an auspicious date for Irish National Opera when the curtain rises on its inaugural production – Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The première’s venue is fittingly Wexford’s National Opera House after which the company moves to Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre where the enchanting piece has performances…
Religious programmes are pretty scarce on Channel 4, so when one pops up on a prime time slot you tend to take notice. Jesus’ Female Disciples: The New Evidence last Sunday night, was rather full of its own importance with claims of rewriting early Christian history, of “explosive” new evidence, “overturning centuries of Christian thought”,…
Aubrey Malone
Greg Daly
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello