The Best-Loved Poems from the Irish, selected translations of Gabriel Fitzmaurice, introduction by Alan Titley (Mercier Press, €14.99) These days when there is clearly an official drive to make us all more conscious of the Irish language, there yet remain as great many people for whom ‘the Irish’ remains a closed world. Here in…
New Perspectives on Conflict and Ireland in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Huddie, Cathal Billings and Arlene Crampsie (Liverpool University Press, £105.00 / €121.00) This collection of essays is the product of a conference of historians at Liverpool University. The subject for discussion was “Conflict in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century”. The contributions…
John Davidson (Robert Aramayo) doesn’t only swear in I Swear (12A). He also spits, twitches, hits people, breaks things and spouts racist and sexist slogans. And yet he’s one of the gentlest people you could meet. What’s going on? It’s Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition people were almost totally ignorant about when John first started experiencing…
A week is a long time in politics’ says the familiar cliché and wow it was certainly one of those weeks. The week started with the first of the Presidential debates on Virgin Media, on the Tonight Show. It was on a spectrum between dull and lacklustre – all task forces (Gavin), military industrial complexes…
In these years of self-publishing many books reach a literary editor’s desk which would be of great interest to a limited audience, which have little appeal for a general publisher. Anything sent into The Irish Catholic will be considered for review; though the Books Editor cannot enter into correspondence about why a title might be turned away.…
The Gospel of Irish Music, by Julie McCabe-Johanning (Atlantic Papers, €16.49) Traditional Irish music is one of the most important identifiers of Irish culture that exists for many people. In its various forms, both highly commercial and warmly local, it has literally conquered the world. However, we do not think of it in association with…
Not Making Hay: The life and deadlines of a “diary” farmer, by Frank McNally (Gill Books, €22.99 / £ 20.50) An Irishman’s Diary”, sometimes “An Irishwoman’s Diary”, in the Irish Times is “a near-century-old institution in Ireland’s most literary newspaper”. These are the words of the current lead writer of the Diary, Frank McNally,…
Unbridled Joy, by Joan McBreen (Salmon Poetry, €12.99) Joan McBreen’s first book of poems, The Wind Beyond The Wall, which was awarded the prestigious Nicholas Roerich poetry prize in the US, was published there and in Ireland in 1990 by the distinguished Story Line Press. Commentators noted that her poetry evokes a contemporary Ireland struggling…
So, the Presidential election is well under way. For an office that is important, with inherent dignity, it has so far been an uninspiring, sometimes silly, even dirty, campaign. The Maria Steen factor was particularly noteworthy. At the early stages she was just one independent among many, sometimes not even mentioned in news reports about…
In Urchin (15), which is showing at the Irish Film Institute this week, we’re presented with a homeless young man, Mike (Frank Dillane), struggling with problems of drink, drugs and a general attitude of arrogance. He doesn’t seem to understand either himself or his life, lurching from one situation to another. When they turn against…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan