Gutenberg’s Cradle : Incunables at Marsh’s Library, Dublin, a catalogue compiled by Sara D’Amico (Marsh’s Library with the support of the Consortium European Research Libraries and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, €20.00; can be ordered directly from information@marshlibrary.ie) We are continually told that living as we do in an era…
All Time Belongs to Him: Seasons and Feasts of the Lord, by Hugh Gilbert OSB (Gracewing, £20.00 / £23.99) This book is quite a contrast to the spiritual adventures of Ben Harrison. The author Hugh Gilbert OSB has been a Benedictine monk of Pluscarden Abbey near Elgin, in Moray in northern Scotland. This is,…
Self-consciously smart commentators can sometimes sneer at moral panics, and some people are truly prone to over catastrophising, but I fear that in relation to children’s access to all sorts of depravity online, the worriers may be justified. The issue was raised on Mornings with Wendy (Spirit Radio, Friday) when Wendy Grace spoke to Alex…
A Song for the Way, by Ben Harrison (Dominican Publications, €12.00 / £10.00) Over the years parts of this book have appeared as articles in journals, but being brought together here they provide readers new to the author’s work with a very vivid reading experience. In a strange way it recollects the Beat Generation…
We’re an hour into Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths (12A) before a character says to Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), “Why are you so angry?” It’s a question you’re entitled to be asking yourself from the first minute of the film. Leigh doesn’t spoon-feed us with answers to it. Hurt people hurt people. There’s a suggestion she may…
I like it when I come across someone that defies expectations, someone with unexpected ideas or unusual hobbies. Mind you there can be unpleasant surprises, like when you discover a close friend is a racist… this is not autobiographical! Barbara Dickson is a famous Scottish pop and folk singer, and she is also a committed…
Following a number of seasonal events, the NSO came back on track with its 2024/25 series at the National Concert Hall in a Russian programme featuring South American conductor Diego Matheuz and French pianist Lise de la Salle. With Rakhmaninov’s ever popular 2nd Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony (Leningrad), I found the relationship between…
The First World War Centenary Roll of Honour and Essays, edited by Ronan McGreevy and Emer Purcell, associate editor Tom Burnell, (National University of Ireland / Four Courts Press, €30.00 / £24.95) This is an important book, but of the kind that will be important to read not as a narrative, but to use for research…
A Vanishing World: The Irish Country House Photographs of Father Browne edited by Robert O’Byrne, (Messenger Publications, €25.00 / £17.99) This is the latest album of images to be culled from the astonishing Fr Francis Browne Collections; it is also by far the best. The images, derived directly from the digitalised negatives, are crisp and…
Highways and Byways: A European Pilgrimage. by Nicholas Schofield, (Gracewing, £15.99 / €18.99) The author Nicholas Schofield, aside from being a parish priest in Uxbridge, has also been an historian and antiquarian and a long time columnist of the Catholic Times. He has previously written Highways and Byways: discovering Catholic England. In this book spreads…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone