Brendan O’ReganBrendan O’Regan takes a ‘sonic journey’
Category: Reviews
Sweet bird of youth
Aubrey MaloneAn incisive slice of nostalgia
Retrospective on the Coen brothers
A season of classics opens in Dublin
‘One of Us’ campaign to become network
The hugely successful One of Us online campaign is to continue defending the right to life. The popular initiative to protect human embryos that gathered over 2 million signatures will now become a network. ëOne of Usí was one of the first registered European citizensí initiatives (ECI) in the European Union, and according to the initiativeís…
Distraction-free prayer app
Organise your prayer life with this straightforward and distraction-free app. PrayerMate, the brainchild of British software developer Andy Geers, prompts users of iPhones, iPads and iPods to pray for both personal and global issues. Every day, PrayerMate will select a person or topic that youíve entered from each of your main categories, ëMy familyí for…
The Reichenbach Problem by Martin Allison Booth (Lion Hudson, €11.50 / £7.99)
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…
Bernadette & the Lady of Lourdes by Eleanor Gormally (Veritas, 4.99/£4.25)
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…
At the Praetorium: Good Friday Revisited A trilogy of one act plays by Sean Walsh (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, $9.99; digital edition $4.05)
Peter CostelloSean Walsh was formerly head of drama on radio at RTÉ. He has written a set of three plays about the events of Good Friday which adopts the unusual device of keeping Jesus off stage, and focusing on the ordinary people of the day, Roman officials, prisoners, the condemned. It is always difficult to see…
Shrines of our penal past
‘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…
Philosophical insights unfathomed
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.…