Writing recently about the Dublin connections of the romance of Tristan and Isolde I had no room to mention that one of the paintings decorating the frieze of the foyer of the City Hall is of Tristan asking for the hand of Isolde (who stands nearby) on behalf of King Mark of Cornwall. Also standing…
Colin Farrell takes the role Clint Eastwood essayed in Don Siegel’s 1971 version of this civil war story based on Thomas Cullinan’s acclaimed novel A Painted Devil. This time Sofia Coppola directs, replacing Siegel’s misogynistic psychodrama with sensitivity and sultry elegance. Farrell is John McBurney, an injured Yankee soldier who’s deserted his post. He’s taken…
When on holidays to France one of my favourite places is Mont Saint Michel, so I was glad to see it featured on last Sunday’s Songs of Praise (BBC 1). Now a World Heritage Site, its modest origins were in the 8th Century and later it became a Benedictine monastery from the 10th Century. Most…
In the hallway of Clongowes Wood Castle there stands a white marble statue of St Ignatius Loyola. To the mind of at least one small boy it had a pale ghostly appearance, little suggesting a living person, and certainly not the vivid vitality of Ignatius himself. In his book Brendan Comerford aims to reveal the…
The pledge of the Ulster Covenant to resist Home Rule by all means was signed by 5,360 Monaghan men, which was about 60% of the Protestant population of the county. As in Belfast the Ulster Volunteer Force was also established in Monaghan in January 1913. By May, part of the Larne shipment of arms had…
Seamus Cashman “I walk ever so slowly to gate and stile. / Poetry is shrinking almost to its bones”, announces the poet, a cry I know I must protest at – having just read the preceding 67 poems in Angel Hill – only to find reassurance two pages and four poems later with the gorgeous…
School can be boring when you’d prefer to save the world than read books, right? So Peter Parker (Tom Holland) aka Spider-man, tends to be somewhat distracted in class, knowing just what he could do if the occasion called for it. Billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) – his mentor – tries to persuade…
A few items last week were more than a bit off. On Tuesday of last week on Today with Sean O’Rourke, Cormac Ó hEadhra spoke to former US Navy Seal Robert O’Neill, the man who claims to have killed Osama Bin Laden. Needless to say I’m no Bin Laden fan, but the clinical description of…
Conor Donnelly In this memoir two sisters give an hilarious and poignant account of boarding school life in Ireland in the 1960s – echoes of the ever popular Mallory Towers perhaps, but this is a true tale of Irish education; and for once a happy enough education too. The authors are both scientists. Valerie has…
Exploring Amoris Laetia: Opening the Pope’s Love Letter to Families edited by Breda O’Brien (Veritas, €12.99) With preparations well under way in Dublin for The World Meeting of Families in August, this collection of essays edited by Irish Catholic columnist Breda O’Brien is very timely. Some nine established Catholic communicators share their insights into the…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello