Gaelic and Free: Memoirs of Pádraig O’Callaghan, edited by Elizabeth Scanlan & Brendan O’Callaghan (Lettertec Publishing, €20.00 / £17. 20 plus p+p; Lettertec, Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork T45 NX81; infor@lettertect.com) J. Anthony Gaughan Two issues dominated the life of Pádraig O’Callaghan: teaching and promoting the Irish language and striving for “an Ireland, Gaelic and Free”. O’Callaghan was…
Maynooth College Reflects on the Catechesis in the Life of the Church, edited by Jeremy Corley, Andrew Meszaros & John-Paul Sheridan, foreword by Bishop Michael Duignan (Messenger Publications, €14.95 / £12.95) This book consists of some 18 papers by writers directly associated for the most part with Maynooth College, and as such it represents…
And so, it has been another rotten week for the right to life. Last week I ended with the proposed decriminalisation of abortion for England and Wales, and unfortunately it came to pass. This happened last Tuesday, getting the week off to a grim start. It proved yet again how permissive abortion laws are inevitably…
Casimir Markievicz: A Polish Artist on Bohemian Dublin (1903-1913) An exhibition in the State Apartments of Dublin Castle, runs to September 14 2025; Co-produced by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the Office of Public Works. Entrance fee, €3.00; catalogue, €5.00. Count Markievicz, the Polish husband of the redoubtable Constance Gore-Booth, was an artist…
Telling the truth is dangerous: how Robert Dudley Edwards changed Irish history forever Neasa MacErlean (Tartaruga Books, £11.99 / €14.00) By Ciaran Brady Biographies and (worse) autobiographies of historians have become so common that one might imagine they were immensely interesting which, given the generally unexciting lives of scholars, they are not. There are,…
Last week I was writing about care of the elderly in nursing homes. This week, the caring was closer to actual home. Young carers were highlighted on The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, Tuesday) when the host spoke to two impressive young carers. Both were school-goers and came across as very mature for their age, not…
An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile, by Linden MacIntyre (Random House Canada, £22.00 / €18.99). Ireland connections with Newfoundland are one of those topics readers are aware of, but rarely seem to receive detailed exploration. Here, however, is a book by an eminent Canadian writer and television reporter which will…
A director shouts “Action!” In front of him stands his wife. How is she going to respond? Will she say, “Yes, sir, no sir, three bags full, sir” or will she be difficult? Will she freeze? Some people perform better at their chosen avocations when their loved ones are watching them. Others ‘corpse.’ There are…
Dillon Rediscovered: The newspaperman who befriended kings, presidents and oil tycoons, by Kevin Rafter (Martello Publishing, €20/ £16.99) Emile Joseph Dillon, born in Dublin in 1854, seemed from his early youth to be destined to become a Roman Catholic priest. He was the only surviving son of modest, pious parents living close to the quays…
Year in the Woods: Montalto through the Seasons, by Paul Clements (Merrion Books, €18.99/ £17.99) Our relations with the natural world have provided a theme which has engaged people of spirit and sensibility since writing began almost, but certainly in the last few centuries. In receiving this book for review the title at once…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone