Nick Page is the author of some 70 popular books in the area of religion, written from a quirky Protestant point of view. This is suggested by his subtitle: “Commemorating 500 years of Popes, Protestants, reformers, radicals and other assorted irritants”. He begins by pointing out that the first historian of the Reformation, a servant…
Máire Ní Aogáin According to a saying attributed to Jim Larkin, “Christ is crucified every day on the streets of Dublin”. This little book transfers this metaphor to the DART stations, linking these to the Stations of the Cross. The bilingual text draws on literature from each language to provide contemporary context for the Stations…
Joe Carroll Irish troops have been involved in United Nations peacekeeping missions for 60 years at a cost of 86 lives. It is an honourable record and the author, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Defence Forces, has played his part. In his new book he writes about the Irish role in these missions and …
Rebuilding Confirmation by Christopher Wesley (Maria Press, $US 10.95PRP) This important little book is subtitled: ‘Because we need more than another graduation’. This will arouse echoes in the mind of pastors and parents, for there is certainly a great confusion it seems among Catholics about what Confirmation is. Rites of passage are very important, and Irish…
It’s been a strange month for online Catholic news. July 1 saw Pope Francis informing Cardinal Gerhard Müller that he would not be renewing his tenure as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church’s doctrinal watchdog. Readers may recall his public disagreement with Irish child protection advocate Marie Collins in…
‘Blockbuster’ is the word that springs to mind as one surveys the raft of films being rolled out in the so-called ‘silly’ season to pique the interest of younger viewers enjoying a break from school. We recently saw films like Wonder Woman and Transformers: The Last Knight making their pitch for this lucrative target audience.…
Films from the 1960s tend to look very dated – what with garish colours and embarassing haircuts – but I find the film Man For All Seasons (RTÉ One, Saturday) still held up well. Paul Schofield, whose work was more on stage than on film, turns in an Oscar-winning performance as St Thomas More, in…
Felix M. Larkin The Fourth Estate: Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland By Mark O’Brien (Manchester University , £80) This book is about “the conditions under which journalism was practised” in Ireland in the 20th Century, with a focus on “how centres of power related to journalists” – to quote the author, Mark O’Brien, lecturer in journalism history…
The Hopkins Festival will be opened tomorrow by the British Ambassador, H.E. Robin Barnett in Newbridge College Theatre, Co. Kildare (at 7.30pm). Directed by poet Desmond Egan, who founded it 30 years ago, it celebrates the life and work of the Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins, now recognised as one of the great literary figures…
Independents in Irish Party Democracy by Liam Weeks (Manchester University Press, £80) Michael O’Leary once dismissed them as “local lunatics”, but UCC political scientist Liam Weeks takes a more favourable view of our independent TDs, in a thorough and well-informed book. He begins in Kerry on count night in February 2016 when independents and brothers Michael…
Peter Costello
Greg Daly
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan