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…
Category: Reviews
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…
Music work rich in scholarship
Peter CostelloThis new reference work, like the Dictionary of Irish Biography, fills a long perceived need, for it covers not only all aspects of music, composition and performance in Ireland, it deals with traditional classical and modern composers. Nor in a country where Handel’s Messiah had its first performance, is sacred music neglected, but it is…
A critque of imperialism
Irish involvement with Africa is all too often seen though the work of missionaries, especially in Nigeria and Kenya. But this reissue of a book by the late Wicklow novelist Gerald Hanley, better known for The Year of the Lion and Gilligan’s Last Elephant, deals with a very different area and very different kind of…
Perspectives on Parnell
Parnell Reconsidered, edited by Pauric Travers and Donal McCartney (UCD Press, €28.00 / £24.00)
Feeding the Hungry Sheep
Food for the Soul, by Brian D’Arcy CP (Columba Press, €14.99 / £12.50)
Hard-hitting documentaries
Brendan O’ReganDocumentary 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
Holy 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