Citizen Lane (G) Such was the esteem in which art dealer Hugh Lane was held, if he even looked at a painting in a gallery, its value escalated. He lived in a period of literary rather than artistic ferment in Ireland. There were more people like W.B. Yeats than his brother Jack. “I’m going to revive…
Journeying in Faith: A Walk with Christ by Cecil Hyland (Church of Ireland Publishing, €12.50) This book is something of a profession of Christian faith, in all its aspects, which Canon Cecil Hyland distils the experience he garnered from a variety of ministries in the Church of Ireland. Like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim he has “earned the…
Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer by Pope Francis (Rider, £9.99) This little book, which is issued to mark the fifth anniversary of the Pope’s election, is like so many of the publications which bear his name, drawn from an interview, or rather conversation, with a friendly interlocutor. This was Fr Marco Pozza, a priest…
Spuds and the Spider by Séamus Ó Conaill (Gill Books, €8.99) The President’s Glasses by Peter Donnelly (Gill Books, €9.99) Margaret Gleason Spuds Potsofgold lives an idyllic life with his wife Rose Goodytwoshoes in the cosy surroundings of Toadstool Cottage, except for one nuisance – an eight-legged, hairy and googly-eyed spider called Leggers McWeb, who is in…
Impeachment: a citizen’s guide by Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard University Press, €7) Felix M. Larkin With speculation rife about the possibility of impeaching President Trump, this little book is indeed timely. In it, Prof. Sunstein outlines what he calls “the majesty and the mystery of impeachment in the US Constitution” – and he dispels much misunderstanding of…
Pat O’Kelly In September 2016 the National Concert Hall, RTÉ and Bord na Móna devised a celebration of music spanning the previous century. Entitled Composing the Island, it was a bold endeavour but, maybe at the end of its three-week run, one had become somewhat saturated and I remember suffering, what I call, musical…
With RTÉ’s Leap of Faith gone into sleep mode for the summer, you wouldn’t go far wrong checking out Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster) for some stimulating religious and ethical discussion with an Irish flavour. Last Sunday morning it felt like something of a time warp with issues like land grabbing, slavery, and whether children…
World of Books by the Books Editor I was struck the other day, while reading Anthony Dent’s book Lost Beasts of Britain, by a remark in his preface. He is explaining that he deals largely with the extent of Britain known to the “good emperor” Antoninus Pius, builder of the Antonine Wall in 142 AD,…
Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher P. Scheitle (Oxford University Press, £19.99) Christopher Moriarty Scientists are subversive. Good scientists are supposed to question everything within their sphere. Institutional religion on the other hand demands obedience to the authoritative word and forbids questioning. The title of this book, by…
The Adoption Machine by Paul Jude Redmond – foreword by Clare Daly TD – (Merrion Press, €16.99). Finola Kennedy The sub-title of The Adoption Machine is ‘The Dark History of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes and the inside story of how Tuam 800 became a global scandal’. The book also contains the author’s personal history.…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan