I Feel Pretty (12A) Namechecking the endearing Natalie Wood tune from West Side Story in its title, this comes to us with the oldest message in movies: it’s the inner person that counts in matters of the heart rather than the outer one. Renee Bennett (Amy Schumer) is a kooky IT worker who’s a bit on the…
Lincoln and the Irish: The Untold Story of How the Irish Helped Abraham Lincoln Save the Union by Niall O’Dowd (Skyhorse Publishing, €20.67/$24.99) Peter Hegarty Niall O’Dowd has an original take on the American Civil War: without the 150,000 Irish soldiers who served in the his armies, Lincoln’s Union would have lost. The Irish-American publisher emphasises…
Perhaps few things provoke Irish eye-rolling quite so much as the clichéd tendency of our cousins across the Irish Sea to claim Irish sporting and acting successes as ‘British’, but it was especially bizarre to read last week a catholicherald.co.uk piece claiming Oscar Wilde’s deathbed conversion as an English phenomenon. In ‘The Passion of Oscar…
Many political shows get phased out over the summer, presumably because the Dáil is not sitting but I don’t get the logic of a religious affairs show ending in April. Last Friday’s Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio 1) was unfortunately the last in the current series, but it will be back in the Autumn. The…
Kerry: The Beautiful Kingdom written and photographed by John Wesson (O’Brien Press, €24.99) John Wesson is an English professional photographer who divides his time between Derbyshire and Valentia Island in Kerry. Though this is his first book I suspect we can expect many more. He has a fine eye for both the beauties of the landscape,…
Faith Finding a Voice by Cardinal Vincent Nichols (Bloomsbury, £12.99) The new book by the Cardinal Archbishop of London will undoubtedly find a wide audience. How encouraging it is, too, that a senior prelate sees it as part of his mission to devote time to composing such a book. It does not happen everywhere. His hope…
Make My House a House of Prayer: Reflections on the Family Rosary by Gabriel Harty OP (Veritas, €3.99) This little book is by a veteran Dominican priest now in his 90s. Known as ‘the Irish Rosary Priest’, he has passed his vocation establishing prayer groups all over Ireland. The key element of his new publication is…
Maria Edgeworth’s Letters from Ireland selected and edited by Valerie Pakenham (Lilliput Press, €40.00hb, €25.00pb) The landed gentry and the great houses of Ireland have not had a great reputation in general. But many of those for whom the traditional nationalist narrative has long sufficed, might well have their minds, if not changed, at least refined…
World of Books We may be about to see major changes in the way the major books shops in Ireland – mostly now the property of British companies – are run. Quite how all of this will work out for readers anxious to stay in touch, not just with Britain, as these companies imagine, but…
It was good to see Unreported World back on Channel 4 last Friday night – these short documentaries highlight various unfamiliar stories from around the world, often focusing on justice issues. The first episode in the new series featured the inspiring and moving story of a free ambulance service and voluntary paramedics serving the vulnerable…
Aubrey Malone
Greg Daly
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello