Courtney McGrailThe World of Saint Patrick by Philip Freeman (Oxford University Press, £14.99)
Category: Reviews
The Irish and the meaning of life
Saol: Thoughts from Ireland on Life and Living by Catherine Conlon (The Collins Press, €12.99)
Architect of the Irish State
Judging W.T. Cosgrave: The Foundation of the Irish State by Michael Laffan (Royal Irish Academy, €30)
Expression begins in our schooldays
Peter CostelloThe principle of freedom of expression – which has been violently attacked and vigorously defended over recent days – depends very much on the ability, not of those in the media, but of ordinary people, to express themselves well and clearly. Freedom of expression is not just for writers and cartoonists, for politicians and pontiffs…
Behind the scenes at the Department of Education
Joe Carroll John Walshe had been the most experienced education correspondent in the Irish media when Ruairi Quinn asked him to join his team as a special adviser when he took over as Minister for Education in 2011. Walshe could not resist becoming poacher turned gamekeeper and now he gives an entertaining insider’s view…
The path back to Rome
Sean Ryan This little red book of 132 pages is a gem. While telling the story of Tom Peterson, founder of the Catholics Come Home organisation, it also emphasises the duty of every baptised Catholic to use their talents to spread the Good News. Peterson was a marketing and advertising guru, whose practice of his faith…
The reality of the spiritual world
The Evidence for God: The Case for the Existence of the Spiritual Dimension by Keith Ward (Darton, Longman & Todd, £9.99).
Webwatch
Greg DalyMen becoming marginalised in 'a feminised Church' Cardinal Raymond Burke (pictured), newly appointed Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, has stirred things up again with an interview for The New Emangelization, arguing that “the radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalised”. Over at…
A star is born without a shot being fired
Aubrey MaloneTestament of Youth (12A)
A shocking week with selective outrage
Brendan O’ReganIt was a shocking week, with the awful murders in France dominating the media landscape. But what upset me the most was a report on last Sunday’s Nine News on RTÉ 1 that children as young as 10 were being used as suicide bombers by the terrorist group Boku Haram in Nigeria. Now there’s a…