Geoff Day Here is a true book full of surprises. It starts as an examination of the suicide bombing of the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv in June 2001 and ends with highlighting some real moral dilemmas related to issues around heart transplants and apartheid. Somerville neatly begins by juxtaposing his recall of the facts…
Dublin prides itself of being “a city of literature” – there are UNESCO signs all over the place promoting the fact. But when we look back over the centuries we can see that the city’s true life in literature only begins with Jonathan Swift, the 350th anniversary of whose birth we are celebrating this year.…
The summer used to be regarded as the silly season for current affairs, but I don’t think that holds true anymore. Sunday Morning Live, back on BBC 1 on Sunday mornings, has no shortage of topical religious and ethical issues to cover. Last weekend’s episode started with an illuminating discussion prompted by the recent attack…
Nobody reading this review is likely to have heard of Hugh Mahon. So why does he merit a biography – in fact a projected two-volume biography? The book to hand is the first instalment, with the second to follow in the not-too-distant future. Mahon was born near Tullamore in 1857, and lived in Canada and…
The World of Books The news that President Trump is to withdraw the US from the Paris Accord on Climate Change may already be last month’s news, but a few comments of a cultural nature about the background might not be out of place. It is to be hoped that given his hectic schedule the…
Ian D’Alton County Louth and the Irish revolution 1912-1923 edited by Donal Hall and Martin Maguire (Irish Academic Press, €19.99 pb, €39.99 hb). In this ‘decade’ of commemorating and remembering the formative period from 1912 to 1923 we are already buried in books. The centenary of the 1916rebellion has seen the emergence of literally hundreds of…
Encountering Jesus by Pat Collins CM (New Life, £10.99; orders@goodnewsbooks.co.uk; ISBN 978 1 90362312-1) The author will be known to many readers not only for his earlier books, but as one of those who helped in recent years to establish the Alpha Course in Ireland. He is a founder member of the New Springtime evangelising…
Andy (Shane Murray-Corcoran) and Maggie (Iseult Casey) are a young couple from Tipperary who begin a romance when they become students together at TCD. The relationship runs into problems, however, when Andy’s father Brendan (Ardal O’Hanlon), who’s been suffering from depression since his wife left him, attempts suicide. Andy drops out of college to be…
Last week didn’t get off to a good start. The Irish Times broke the story of the girl who sought an abortion and was subsequently, but not consequently, sectioned. I would have thought the best outcome was both mother and baby alive, but those who would think themselves liberal and progressive didn’t hesitate to hijack…
Death and the Irish: A Miscellany edited by Salvador Ryan ( Wordwell, €25.00) One of the minor masterpieces of modern Irish literature is Seamus O’Kelly’s long story The Weaver’s Grave, which recounts the animadversions of two old men asked to find the family burial place in the local Cloon na Morav in Connacht. The request comes…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone