Peter CostelloEducation Matters: Readings in Pastoral Care for School Chaplains, Guidance Counsellors and Teachers edited by James O’Higgins Norman (Veritas, €19.99/£16.15)
Category: Reviews
Expression begins in our schooldays
The 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…
Mean, moody and quite magnificent
Aubrey MaloneIn its coolness, its stylishness, its ponderous sense of menace, this is as good as anything we ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ about in The Godather trilogy all those years ago. Set in 1981, it’s basically the story of two men chasing the American dream. The camel-coated Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) has risen up high in the…
Highs and lows in dramatic offerings
Brendan O’ReganHaving lost some of its programmes to UTV Ireland, TV3 had to fight back with some stronger programming and the twice-weekly drama Red Rock was flagged as its foray into original soaps. Describing it as a soap actually does it something of an injustice, as it’s better than that. The atmospheric visuals immediately put it…
The apostle of Ireland
Courtney McGrailThe World of Saint Patrick by Philip Freeman (Oxford University Press, £14.99)
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)
A star is born without a shot being fired
Testament of Youth (12A)
A shocking week with selective outrage
It 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…
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…