An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile, by Linden MacIntyre (Random House Canada, £22.00 / €18.99). Ireland connections with Newfoundland are one of those topics readers are aware of, but rarely seem to receive detailed exploration. Here, however, is a book by an eminent Canadian writer and television reporter which will…
A director shouts “Action!” In front of him stands his wife. How is she going to respond? Will she say, “Yes, sir, no sir, three bags full, sir” or will she be difficult? Will she freeze? Some people perform better at their chosen avocations when their loved ones are watching them. Others ‘corpse.’ There are…
Dillon Rediscovered: The newspaperman who befriended kings, presidents and oil tycoons, by Kevin Rafter (Martello Publishing, €20/ £16.99) Emile Joseph Dillon, born in Dublin in 1854, seemed from his early youth to be destined to become a Roman Catholic priest. He was the only surviving son of modest, pious parents living close to the quays…
Year in the Woods: Montalto through the Seasons, by Paul Clements (Merrion Books, €18.99/ £17.99) Our relations with the natural world have provided a theme which has engaged people of spirit and sensibility since writing began almost, but certainly in the last few centuries. In receiving this book for review the title at once…
Here in Ireland the recovery in 1993 of a Caravaggio painting from the wall of the dining room of the Jesuit residence in Leeson Street, Dublin, made us all very conscious of this extraordinary artist of the Baroque period. That painting, The Taking of Christ, from 1602, now has a home in the National Gallery, where…
It must be hard for those with a secure home to fully appreciate the experience of homelessness. Gradually becoming homeless is bad enough, being yanked violently out of your home must be so much more heartbreaking. An historical example was outlined in the moving documentary Saving a Man – the Role of the Church During…
People of a certain age will remember Radharc, the documentary series funded in 1962 by the then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. This month there are free shows at the Irish Film Institute at lunchtime on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays of two of its seminal films, both a half hour long. You can also…
The days the news seems to have, on an almost daily basis, some medical story in prominence: the saga of the Children’s Hospital, crowded Emergency Departments, patients on trolleys for days on end, a lack of beds nationwide, unnecessary operations on children, failures to treat others… It seems to go and on. What perhaps we…
Death in Derry: Martin McGuinness & the Derry IRA’s War against the British by Jonathan Trigg (Merrion Press, €18.99 / £17.99) This is a detailed account of the conflict between the members of the Derry Brigade of the Provisional IRA and the Crown Forces from 1971 onwards. The author is a military historian. Before putting…
What do you do when your children have left home, your house has been repossessed, you’ve just lost your life savings and you’ve been given a dire medical diagnosis? That’s easy. You walk 650 miles along Britain’s South-East coast with a backpack, a makeshift tent and a few refreshments to tide you by. As Samuel…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan