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…
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…
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…
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…
The dust hasn’t yet settled from the UK general election, and debate across Britain is febrile over the wisdom and propriety of Theresa May’s Conservatives placing themselves in debt to the DUP. Astonishingly and – one might think – irresponsibly, the controversy is but rarely over whether Britain’s governing party should be beholden to the…
One of the most prevalent myths about the Catholic Church is that it has either no interest in science or is antagonistic towards it. The Sky at Night: Inside God’s Observatory (BBC 4 last Sunday night) blew that one comprehensively out of the water. The programme was introduced as “the highlight” of an evening of astronomy…
Chruchill (PG) I interviewed Gay Byrne once and asked him what he thought was the main reason for his success in broadcasting. He replied tartly, “Events, dear boy, events!” What he meant was that he’d simply been in the right place at the right time. Perhaps the same could be said of Winston Churchill. Churchill…
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation and the Present Day by Roy Hattersly (Chatto & Windus, £ 25.00) Roy Hattersley, a former MP and Minister in Britain, prefaces his congenial history with a fascinating autobiographical fragment in which he recalls the ease with which his father could translate…
Best-Loved Joyce written by James Joyce with an introduction by Bob Joyce. Edited by Jamie O’Connell (O’Brien Press, €12.99) Joyce Unplugged by Anthony J. Jordan (West Books, €15.00) Tomorrow, during the now ever-expanding festivities recalling the day in 1904 on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is set, will see a host of events of all kinds for…
Buried lives: The Protestants of Southern Ireland by Robin Bury (History Press, €20.00) In 1965, Michael Viney published an influential pamphlet, The Five Percent: A Survey of Protestants in the Republic, reprinting a series of articles from The Irish Times. The title gave its name to a sociological anxiety: will the five percent shrink to four…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Greg Daly
Peter Costello