The pseudo-traditionalist website rorate-caeli.blogspot.com has become perhaps stranger than ever in the aftermath of the much-ballyhooed ‘filial correction’ of Pope Francis. It’s getting attention, as Roberto de Mattei says on the site, though it’s hard to justify his claim that it’s had an “extraordinary impact”, even if it’s been widely reported even in Russia and…
It’s quite a while since I saw a documentary as moving and impressive as Ministry of Hope, RTÉ’s new series on the work of lay chaplains. The programme concentrated on Margaret Sleator in the Mater Hospital, Catherine Black in Shelton Abbey open prison and Philip McKinley, Church of Ireland chaplain at DCU. Margaret Slater’s work…
Life is a Funny Business: A Very Personal Story by Alan Shatter (Poolbeg, €16.99) Peter Hegarty In a candid affecting book Alan Shatter takes us into the “deep recesses of my mind”. The deepest, darkest recess holds the memory of the cold December afternoon in 1965 when he returned home to find his mother Elaine dead on…
Grave Matters: Death and Dying in Dublin from 1500 to the Present by Lisa Marie Griffith & Ciarán Wallace (Four Courts Press, €24.95) Peter Costello One of the stranger experiences of my childhood was a visit to the vaults of old St Michan’s where it was then possible not only to see the coffins of the…
The Belfast Jacobin: Samuel Neilson and the United Irishmen by Kenneth L. Dawson (Irish Academic Press, €22.99) Ian d’Alton This biography of one of the lesser-known founding members of the Society of United Irishmen is engaging, readable and impressively researched. The stories of United Irishmen like Tone, Drennan and Lord Edward Fitzgerald are well-known – but…
A Bloody Night: The Irish at Rorke’s Drift by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €14.99) A Bloody Day: The Irish at Waterloo by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €14.99) J. Anthony Gaughan These are interesting accounts by the same author of two very different battles, but which had one thing in common – the participation of Irish soldiers. Rorke’s Drift…
Czech Architectural Cubism by Zdenék Lukeš and Ester Havlová (Jaroslav Fregner Gallery, Prague, €10.00; on sale at IAA) The Irish Architectural Archive is currently running an exhibition, “Czech Architectural Cubism”, which should not be missed by anyone interested about how architecture, including indeed church architecture, might have developed in Ireland in the 1920s. Czechs…
Sam Maguire: The Man and The Cup by Kieran Connolly (Mercier Press, €12.99) As last week’s dramatic victory by Dublin over Mayo showed, the Sam Maguire Cup is much better known than the man after whom it was named and honours. This opportune account of Sam Maguire and noteworthy occasions and persons associated with…
Crimes of the Father by Thomas Keneally (Sceptre Books, £19.99) Pauric Travers Almost 50 years ago, schoolteacher and aspiring writer Thomas Keneally won his second Miles Franklin award for Three Cheers for the Paraclete, a novel set in the Irish-Australian Catholic community which explores the conflict between faith, obedience, freedom and authority. Half a century and…
In some circles, especially among young people, the contribution of the Catholic Church to science and the arts is a well-kept secret. Fr Andrew Pinsent of the Ian Ramsay Centre for Science and Religion, and Fr Marcus Holden from the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate have done more than most to remedy this (e.g.…
Greg Daly
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello