The Astronomy Book (Big Ideas Imply Explained series) (DK / Penguin Random House, €20) Michael Fewer When our children were young, one of the highlights of visits to our country cottage was the night skies, particularly in autumn and winter, when we all used to wrap up well and lie out on foam mattresses,…
Sometimes one series of a TV drama is enough, as quality can deteriorate, but I was delighted to see The A-Word back for a second series on BBC 1, Tuesday nights. This is the story of an autistic boy, Joe, and the struggles of his parents and wider family to cope with the situation. It’s…
Pat O’Kelly Thanks to the hospitality of ambassador Marie-Claude Meylan, the Swiss Embassy was the convivial venue for a recently launched CD – Chopin Recital – featuring Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins. On the Swiss classical label Claves, for which Collins has already recorded excellent Schumann albums, the new disc, 50-1719, is a cooperation with…
The squabbles about Amoris Laetitia continue to rumble on, with Dan Hitchens, deputy editor of England’s The Catholic Herald observing from his Twitter account @ddhitchens that “Rocco Buttiglione, one of the leading critics of traditional teaching on the sacraments, has collected his articles into a book”, and directing followers to his firstthings.com “critique” from August…
De Valera: Volume 1 Rise 1882-1932 by David McCullagh (Gill Books, €24.99) Joe Carroll Apart from about eight full biographies of Eamon de Valera, there have been the hundreds if not thousands of articles and critiques covering his long life. What new is there to say? David McCullagh, who is a journalist with RTÉ…
Letters from Aleppo by Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh (Columba Press, €14.99) Anthony Redmond I have a Syrian friend whom I met in Dublin 15 years ago when he was a student of English. He returned to Syria before the terrible war began in 2011 and he is now married there with two small children. We keep in touch…
‘So are they all, all honourable men’ The controversy that has been aroused by Bob Geldof (or should that be Sir Bob?) handing back his deed as Honorary Freeman of the City of Dublin at the City Hall has focused public attention on just what this title is. Turning as I always do to…
If I settle down to Sunday night TV I want something cosy, undemanding, even uplifting, but that’s not how it turned out last weekend. Would You Believe? (RTÉ 1) returned with impact last Sunday night with the first episode in a two-part exploration of the subject of evil. Mick Peelo’s report didn’t contain any blinding…
Breaking News: An Autobiography by Jeremy Thompson (Biteback Publishing, £20.00) Peter Hegarty Thompson’s writing is as assured and informed as his reports for Sky News were. He has a keen eye for the haunting details of a story, describing the scorched shapes of Iraqi soldiers, ‘sightlessly staring’ from the cabs of their burned-out trucks. During a…
I am infinitely loved: A month of meditations by Brian Grogan S.J. (Messenger Publications, €4.95) The title of this little pamphlet is taken from a remark by Pope Francis: “When all is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” Brian Grogan reapplies this to draw out in a month’s course of meditations the idea that each…
Brendan O’Regan
Greg Daly
Peter Costello