Pat O’Kelly As well as his very active performing career at home and abroad, the Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins is also artistic director of two important events occurring outside the capital. The first is the New Ross Piano Festival, which since its foundation in 2006 takes place in late September and is centred on…
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) has a ‘Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality in News and Current Affairs’. One quote is of particular interest – “a presenter and/or a reporter on a current affairs programme shall not express his or her own views on matters that are either of public controversy or the subject…
Interpreting art – including religious art – can be a tricky and contentious business. Take, for instance, a photograph posted by Crisis magazine columnist Austin Ruse of Cardinal Raymond Burke following Christmas Midnight Mass in Florence. “A stunning photo!” proclaims lifesitenews.com author Diane Montagna from her @dianemontagna Twitter account, thanking @austinruse for posting it in…
Journey of Ten Thousand Smiles by Patricia Keane (Rebuild for Bosnia, Monasterevin, €16.95; for over the phone sales call 045 532 410) In November 1996 I accompanied Fr Kevin Doheny, CSSp, on a journey from Medjugorje to Sarajevo. He had been a missionary in Biafra, where there were thousands of displaced people and refugees after…
The Post Office in Ireland: An Illustrated History by Stephen Ferguson (Irish Academic Press, €26.99) At this time of the year over Christmas and the New Year we come to appreciate the post, which brings messages of love and peace and presents from relatives and friends all over the world, some not seen in person…
Molly’s Game (15) When Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) has a freak accident in the snow at an Olympic skiing event, she tries to build an alternative career as a cocktail waitress, a real estate agent and, finally, running high stakes poker games for VIPs. Aaron Sorkin trades heavily on Martin Scorsese’s scattergun style of directing Goodfellas…
Over the Christmas period you expect lots of feel-good movies and carol services, which is all very good, but every year I look out for something new, something different, a programme that engages in a creative and contemporary way with the Christmas story of the Gospels. Happily I found a few such programmes this year.…
The World of Books The notion that the Apostle of Ireland was also the country’s first archaeologist is not, I should hasten to admit, an aberration of my own. It was the idea of my late friend Glyn Daniel [pictured], Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge. When the very suggestive evidence is laid out the…
Looking back on the media landscape in 2017 it’s good to report quite a few excellent programmes, including some very positive to religious faith, though there are disappointments as well. One of the programmes that stands out most for me is last June’s BBC drama series Broken, starring Sean Bean as a troubled priest in…
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” says Kevin Spacey’s Keyser Söze in 1996’s The Usual Suspects. It was, writes Tracy Robey at racked.com, a vision of evil – hidden in plain sight and wearing utterly forgettable clothes – “that captured pop culture’s imagination”. Trumping other 1990s takes…
Brendan O’Regan
Greg Daly
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone