The Man Who Knew Infinity (12A) It’s 1914 and World War I is raging. But inside the walls of Trinity College in Cambridge the old duffers at the helm are more concerned about something mathematical they call “cracking partitions”. Into their hallowed portals comes Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian student who can work out the finer…
The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Oneworld, £18.99) Peter Hegarty Dudley Edwards’ richly-detailed book is the fruit of a lifelong interest in the 1916 Rising and the seven men who formed the military council which led it. She admires the seven, in varying degrees, without…
A Slanting of the Sun by Donal Ryan (Black Swan Ireland, €10.99pb) Anna Farmar There’s a wistful longing in many of the stories in Donal Ryan’s third book A Slanting of the Sun – for kindness, for a sharing of love, for forgiveness – as the narrators remember the turning points when their lives went awry and…
In this weeks viewing Brendan O’Regan focuses on “Stories of people changing for the better”. Stories of forgiveness, repentance, atonement and homecoming are finding a new resonance in this Year of Mercy. However, when some repent, are forgiven and reconciled, others who also need it can be prone to begrudgery, rather like the older brother…
Gospel Reflections, For Sundays of the Year C: Luke by Donal Neary SJ (Irish Messenger Publications, €7.99pb) In the post-Easter call for reflection, which ought to affect all parts of our lives, Fr Donal Neary’s little book will be very relevant, as we still have a good part of Year C to run. Fr Neary…
The murky trade in modern religious relics The urge to have a relic associated with some loved one, some hero, some person of great spirituality, is as an old as humanity. It is a quite understandable emotion. For Christians it may take on added dimensions, but they are not alone in their emotions. But as…
My Name is Emily (12A) “There’s a sadness in this country,” says the eponymous Emily in this quirky, life-affirming film, “a sadness it cannot hide.” She’s lost her mother in a car accident. Her father survived it but had a nervous breakdown afterwards. Such a breakdown resulted in some outlandish behaviour. He started doing things…
Brendan O’Regan reflects on a ‘heart-breaking’ documentary focusing on innocent lives lost in the crossfire of rebellion and wonders whether it was in good taste to air a programme on Judas on Good Friday. I’m not convinced that it was a great idea for BBC 1 to put the focus on Judas for Good Friday,…
Risen (12A) This elegiac re-enactment of the aftermath of the Resurrection in Judea in 33AD as experienced by a disaffected Roman soldier is in many ways reminiscent of Barabbas (1961), the story of the thief who reached a catharsis after believing he was responsible for the death of Jesus. The conversion of Clavius (Joseph Fiennes)…
It was no fluke that the climax to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – the destruction of the Ring on Mount Doom – took place, as Tolkien fans who pore over appendices will tell you, on March 25. March 25, writes Eleanor Parker at aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com, is “the single most significant date in salvation…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Greg Daly