It’s a tale of beginnings and endings this week! I enjoyed the first episode of the new biblical series House of David, launched on Amazon Prime last Thursday. I’m not a great fan of biblical epics – they often opt for spectacle rather than spirit, so the Bible, I’d suggest, is better read than seen!…
Travellers in the Golden Realm: How Mughal India Connected England to the World, by Lubaaba Al-Azami (John Murray, £25.00 / €30.50 ) This is a most arresting book, though not always for the reasons the author may have hoped for. It was, it seems, originally to be published under a different title First Encounters:…
This Glowing Place: New & Selected Poems by Pádraig J. Daly (Scotus Press, €15.00 / £12.50) John F. Deane This exceptional book has been long awaited, and thoroughly rewards the reader. The cover image, of the Liffey and the city in the glimmering twilight, reflects the ecology of the poet’s life and imagination, the inner…
The worlds of religion and politics are often dominated by major figures, characters and leaders with big personalities – some of them will feature here. And so it was that Pope Francis was one of those giants that figured large in the media last week. Watching ITV News last Wednesday I was conscious, during Ellie…
Have you ever seen a convent of nuns that comprises a former beauty queen, a drug dealer whose life was – literally – saved by the Bible, a nun who wears a tattoo, one who swears, one who jokes about the decapitation of John the Baptist, one who sways her hips as she dances to…
A Tract for Our Times: A Retrospective on Joe Lee’s Ireland 1919-1985, editor Miriam Nyhan Grey, with contribution by eight others. (Glucksman Ireland House, NYU / UCD Press, US$50.00 / €40.00) Historically minded readers should not be alarmed by the title to this festschrift: it seems to be intended as merely a fancy piece of styling,…
In 1915 the United States was passing through a period of recollection marking the 50th anniversary of the end of Civil War, also known, depending on one’s point of view as ‘The Great Rebellion’ or ‘The War Between the States’, which had ended with the surrender of the Confederate leader General Lee at Appomattox Court…
Last Friday being St Valentine’s Day it wasn’t surprising that love, romance, sex and marriage figured in media discussions. Our Divine Sparks (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) featured some historical background about the saint. Apparently, 3rd-century Roman Emperor Claudius II banned marriage because married men don’t make for good soldiers! So, Valentine performed secret marriages and…
Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History , by Louise Ryan, Gráinne McPolin and Neha Doshi (Four Courts Press, €17.95pb) Anthony Gaughan In the second half of the twentieth century, thousands of Irish girls migrated to the UK to train as nurses. They were subsequently employed in hospitals throughout England, Scotland and Wales. …
How important is art in films? Are we living in a world where money rules OK and everything else gets squashed into the background? One of the first films I saw when I came to Dublin was Vittorio De Sica’s earthy Bicycle Thieves, a ‘cinema verité’ story of a man and his son living on…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone