This week the civilised world has been marking the fourth centenary of the death of William Shakespeare, poet, playwright and businessman. Universally admired he may be, but his works have suffered many vicissitudes over the years. The man himself began as a poet in a classical sense. The dramas came perhaps as a way of…
Coverage of this week’s census brought out “the conspiracy theorist in me”, writes Brendan O’Regan Last week I reviewed two British crime shows that showed adultery as a hugely destructive thing, and there was the same message yet again on another drama, Undercover, last Sunday night on BBC One. This was a peculiar variation on…
The Man Who Knew Infinity (12A) It’s 1914 and World War I is raging. But inside the walls of Trinity College in Cambridge the old duffers at the helm are more concerned about something mathematical they call “cracking partitions”. Into their hallowed portals comes Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian student who can work out the finer…
It sometimes seems that the further to the rightward and leftward ends of the Church spectrum Catholics go, the more controversial Pope Francis can seem, and never more so than now in the aftermath of Amoris Laetitia. Criticism of the Pope surely crossed into a whole new realm on April 11, though, when the lead…
One Bold Deed of Open Treason: the Berlin Diary of Roger Casement 1914-1916 edited by Angus Mitchell (Merrion Press, €19.95pb / €70.00hb) W. J. McCormack A lamentable feature of this year’s 1916 commemorative programme has been its failure to establish comprehensive and reliable editions of the insurrectionary leaders’ writings in which “the mind of the Rising” might be…
Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in 20th Century Catholic Europe by Chris Maunder (Oxford University Press, £25.00) Marian shrines are of great antiquity. At Knaresborough near Harrogate in England a small shrine, dedicated to Our Lady of the Crags, still survives. Built by John the Mason in 1408, and now the property of…
Dissonant Voices: Faith and the Irish Diaspora edited by Conn McGahhann (Institute for Theological Partnerships Publishing, £10.00) This book presents a selection of the papers read at a conference held in the London Irish Centre two years ago. Diaspora is given a very wide interpretation for the topics range from the 17th Century exiles in Europe,…
This week’s British crime drama made brought ‘excellent’ plots to the table while also tackling deep issues such as ‘the gravity of abortion’, writes Brendan O’Regan I have a weakness for British crime dramas and for my sins am concurrently working on two seasons of Scott and Bailey, set in Manchester and featuring two female…
My Name is Emily (12A) “There’s a sadness in this country,” says the eponymous Emily in this quirky, life-affirming film, “a sadness it cannot hide.” She’s lost her mother in a car accident. Her father survived it but had a nervous breakdown afterwards. Such a breakdown resulted in some outlandish behaviour. He started doing things…
The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Oneworld, £18.99) Peter Hegarty Dudley Edwards’ richly-detailed book is the fruit of a lifelong interest in the 1916 Rising and the seven men who formed the military council which led it. She admires the seven, in varying degrees, without…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone