‘Were You at the Rock’: the History of Mass Rocks in Ireland by Tony Nugent (The Liffey Press, €10.95) The Mass Rocks of Killybegs: Ten Pilgrimages to Sacred Places in Killybegs Summer 2013 by the Killybegs Mass Rocks Committee (Killybegs Parish Office, €15.00 + p&p;  tel.:  00353 (0)74 9731013) It is by one of those…

Frank Litton These days we worry about how the social media is affecting our relationships. Is the diligent Facebook user dodging the task of sustaining friendships for a less demanding and rewarding electronic substitute? If Facebook does little for friendship, its ubiquity bears witness to the importance of the idea of friendship. Friendship is important.…

J. Anthony Gaughan His Cork-based publisher describes Richard McElligott as “a Kerry partisan”.  That, however, does not prevent the author from providing a splendid account of the GAA in his native county. The earliest chapters are the most important. They describe consistent progress, but there was considerable chaos and confusion. Clubs were established, but some soon…

With the new series of Sherlock underway to great fanfare on TV, all things relating to Conan Doyle and his great detective are in vogue. Here is an unusual take on the genre. Martin Booth was once a TV writer and producer, but is now a parish priest. This story which deals with a visit…

Eleanor Gormally, the author of Little Lucy's Family, which successfully relates adoption to the experience of the ordinary child, in this little book written rhyming verse, provides simple account of the moving yet still mysterious events at Lourdes in February 1858.  She relates how Bernadette was asked by her Aquero as she called the lady…

This little booklet assembles some the Popeís orbiter dicta since his election, with comments on the Church, on the sacraments, on Our Lady, on the role of women in the Church, and insightful comments on himself and his earlier experiences as a leader, and how he, as an admitted sinner, has learnt from those experiences. …