Brendan O’ReganThis week we were reminded several times of the great work done abroad by Irish missionaries and lay volunteers over the years, an ongoing legacy we can be proud of. On Today With Sean O’Rourke, RTÉ1 Tuesday of last week, two award-winning missionaries impressed. Sr Cora O’Richardson had lived a full life – had studied…
Category: Reviews
Four days that changed the world
Parkland (12A) For many people, John F. Kennedy’s assassination 50 years ago was a kind of pre-9/11 experience, an iconic moment. The famous question, “Where were you when JFK was shot?” subsequently became associated with other figures like Elvis and Princess Diana etc., but he was the first. The four dark days of his death…
Webwatch Nov 28 2013
Cathal BarryPope is most popular name online A new global survey has revealed that Pope Francis has topped the list of names most mentioned on the internet so far this year, with his twitter account also receiving a high ranking on a list of most mentioned words. In this year’s survey, the Monitor found that Pope…
Hard-hitting documentaries
Documentary may not be the most popular genre, but done well can have quite an impact. Powerful and well-made as it was, it’s hard to see what effect The Disappearedwill have (RTÉ 1 Monday, BBC 4 Tuesday, last week). Darragh MacIntyre certainly re-opened the controversy about the people were ‘disappeared’ in Northern Ireland in the…
A feast of film at the IFI
Documentary may not be the most popular genre, but done well can have quite an impact. Powerfuland well-made as it was, it’s hard to see what effect The Disappearedwill have (RTÉ 1 Monday, BBC 4 Tuesday, last week). Darragh MacIntyre certainly re-opened the controversy about the people were ‘disappeared’ in Northern Ireland in the 1970s,…
Relics of saintly lives
Peter CostelloHoly Bones and Holy Dust: How Relics Shape the History of Medieval Europe Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs
Up before the bench
The Irish District Court: A social Portrait
Man and land in modern Ireland
Landscape and Society in Contemporary Ireland
Gypsy Lore
The World of Books The recent incident involving two fair-haired Roma children being taken into protection by the Garda has raised concerns about the arbitrary intervention of the State in some circumstances. It also revealed, which is of just as much concern, that folklore about Roma, or Romany, or Gypsies, is rife in Ireland. Merely changing the…
Phantasmagoria and a touch of whimsy
Thor: The Dark World (12A)There’s no gainsaying the visual splendour of would-be epics like this, even if they tend to resemble little more than sophisticated video games betimes, but the makers rarely seem to bother inserting any subtleties in the plotlines or characterisations, as if the kind of people who go to films like this…