Brendan O’ReganAbortion continues as the dominant topic of debate in Ireland, writes Brendan O’Regan
Category: Reviews
Oliver Twist meets Harry Potter in magical mystery tour
Aubrey MalonePan (PG)
“Bare ruin’d choirs” and the future of the Church
Courtney McGrailAbandoned Churches of Ireland by Tarquin Blake (The Collins Press, €27.99) Medieval Ecclesiastical Buildings, 1789-1915: Building on the Past by Niamh NicGhabhann (Four Courts Press, €55)
When women were treated as second-class citizens
Suffragette (12A)
A mixed bag of attitudes towards faith
Media bias brings a bad start to the viewing week, writes Brendan O’Regan
The philosophical French, from Descartes to Derrida
How the French think: an affectionate portrait of an intellectual people by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Allen Lane, £20)
Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
ed. by Ronald A. Beers and others (Hodder and Stoughton, £29.99)
New light on the man who ran Ireland
Activities Wise and Otherwise: The Career of Sir Henry Augustus Robinson 1898-1922 by Brendan O’Donoghue (Irish Academic Press, €29.99)
Brian Friel (1929-1915)
Peter CostelloThe death of Brian Friel at the age of 86 marks an epoch in Irish literature. Along with Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel was an Irish writer with an international reputation, who was never tempted into exile. Friel was one of the group of Ulster writers and critics who came to prominence in the 1960s, and…
Relax – there’s no need to fear ‘synod conspiracies’
“Conspiracy theories offer easy answers by casting the world as simpler and more predictable than it is,” according to Sander van der Linden’s 2013 scientificamerican.com article ‘What a Hoax: Why people believe in conspiracy theories’, which argues that conspiracy theories’ popularity can pose a threat to societal well-being. It was somewhat reassuring, then, to learn…