Oddball and the Penguins (G) Foxes are killing baby penguins on their colony on Middle Island, which is off the coast of the south-western Australian town of Warrnambool. There used to be thousands of penguins there. Now they’re in danger of extinction, the predatory foxes making their way across the shallow channel from the mainland…
Protecting Mental Health by Dr Keith Gaynor(Veritas, €12.99) Mental health is an issue that affects every family in some way or another. Historians have traced out how the mentally ill were treated – or rather not treated – in the Georgian and Victorian periods. Today we can assume that treatments have improved, and yet, as…
Truce: Murder, myth and the last days of the Irish war of independence by Padráig Óg Ó Ruairc (Mercier Press, Cork, €17.99) Ian D’Alton The Irish Revolution industry marches on. This book is somewhat ahead of the centenary of the events it chronicles, so it is almost a welcome diversion from the veritable tsunami of books about…
When the Church of England twitter account reacted to news that Richard Dawkins had had a mild stroke by tweeting “Prayers for Prof Dawkins and his family”, the tweet’s author didn’t expect the ensuing storm of protest, along with cheers from those who thought it a hilarious thing for them to have done. Anxious to…
Young Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land by Robert Crawford (Jonathan Cape, €31.50 hb) John Wyse Jackson The two most important early works of modernist literature were published in the same year, 1922: Ulysses, by James Joyce, and The Waste Land, by T S Eliot. Both writers are still widely read and studied, and…
Brendan O’Regan reflects on “something of a good news bad news week” It was something of a good news bad news week. Síle Ní Chonaonaigh (fresh from the wonderful Garraí Glas gardening programme) gets to apply her infectious enthusiasm and good humour as she dips into rural life as presenter of Dúiche (TG4) which last…
The Materiality of Devotion in Late Medieval Northern Europe: Images, Objects and Practices ed. by Henning Laugerud, Salvador Ryan & Laura Katrine Skinnebach (Four Courts Press, €29.95) At one time we used to hear older people complaining that the changes brought about by Vatican II had brought an end to many of the devotional pictures…
Arthur Griffith by Owen McGee (Merrion Press, €27.00) Colum Kenny Arthur Griffith, the first president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State in 1922, deserves more respect than he gets. This intriguing and polemical volume will help to redress the balance. Born in Dominick Street in 1872, and having shared the hardships of so…
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (G) We’ve had dinosaurs ruling the Earth. We’ve had robotoid cowboys on a virtual reality game show. We’ve even, for God’s sake, had vampires from outer space. But what filmgoers really needed was, yes, an episode of American Idol featuring a trio of singing chipmunks. This is what’s…
Journey of Love: Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, a Readers Guide by Eugene McCaffrey OCD, with a foreword by Vincent O’Hara OCD (Teresian Press, £4.00; www.carmelitebooks.com). The author is well known from his talks, retreats and his writings on St Teresa, largely at Avila in Dublin where he is based. This little book, written for…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Greg Daly
Brendan O’Regan