‘Old Christmas is still alive…’ Once again Christ-mas, and all its associations, religious and commercial, has passed over and the New Year approaches. But this is only in Western countries, in Europe, the Americas, and parts of Africa. In the Levant, those Asian countries where the sun rises each day among the most ancient Christian…
Nacho Libre TG 4, Saturday, December 23, 10.55 pm (2006) Starring Jack Black. Directed by Jared Hess. Berated all his life by those around him, a monk follows his dream and dons a mask to moonlight as a Luchador (Mexican wrestler). Warm, funny, and some would say tasteless in spots. Sacred Music at Christmas BBC…
Anthony Redmond I have no hesitation in saying that the book that made the biggest impression on me, not just this year, but for quite a few years, is Letters from Aleppo by Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh (Columba Press, € 14.99). It is a wonderfully moving and powerful account of a dedicated priest’s daily life in…
The year had hardly begun when Martin Scorsese blitzed us with Silence, his epic tale of a pair of Jesuits enduring horrendous suffering in 17th-Century Japan. It got a critical mauling for its longueurs but if you stayed with it, as is the case with most Scorsese films, it was well worth it. Most of…
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales by P. D. James (Faber & Faber, £10.00) There are critics who think that a tale of crime is often better told as a short story, with the models of Conan Doyle, and many writers of the golden age in the interwar years when there were magazine outlets. Now…
Sometimes a pro-gramme gives you an unexpected but emotional punch. The impact of last week’s Prime Time – Carers in Crisis (RTÉ 1, Tuesday) was immediate and heart rending, but it will have to go way beyond a passing discomfort for the viewer. At least one of the carers said she didn’t want pity or…
Pat O’Kelly Since 2012 the National Concert Hall has presented an annual Lifetime Achievement Award to Irish musicians of international renown. Not confined to what can be loosely termed ‘classical artists’, the award spreads its wings across a broader spectrum of musical genres. James Galway, Veronica Dunne, Paul Brady and the Vanbrugh Quartet followed the…
Anthony Redmond How We Killed God . . .and Other Tales of Modern Ireland by David Quinn (Currach Press, €16.99) Two guests who took part on the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ radio back in October 2006 were the well-known atheist Richard Dawkins and the journalist David Quinn. Dawkins was there to discuss his book,…
At this time of the year publishers are particularly anxious to push their new wares. That is all very well for them, but many readers might also like to read something older, to return to the classics of all kinds that were the common rereading of yesteryear. Oddly enough as a result I suppose of…
by J. Anthony Gaughan Sometimes, especially at this time of the year, it is good to look back over the recent past, and perhaps to add a corrective note to what had been written and perhaps widely accepted. I have been reading lately a book that was given to me as present, but which was…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone