Being highly exposed to the media as I am, in the line of duty of course, there are so many highs and lows – material that is depressingly grim or uplifting and inspiring. I thought it would be good to start on a positive note. In broad strokes, there have been engaging documentaries, well-crafted and…
Irish Paris: Stories of famous and infamous Irish people in Paris through the centuries by Isadore Ryan (€19.00; reach irishmeninparis.org for details of purchase) This is an interesting and entertaining book by a Paris based Irish economic journalist with a passion for the past. He is the author of two previous books, No Way…
An Irish Food Story by JP McMahon (Nine Bean Rows Press, €25.00 / £20.75) Irish Food History: A Companion, by Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Dorothy Cashman and others (Royal Irish Academy, €45.00 / £38.00) This holiday season of feasting and drinking, quite in the ancient fashion of the Fianna some might say, seems to be…
Watching the ceremonies from Notre Dame, whether in the congregation or on television (where the view was better), for the occasion of the rededication of the great cathedral, many must have had their attention caught over the two days by the vestments worn by the participating clergy. These certainly struck a very different and new…
Christmas and the New Year are the most important marketing periods for the book trade. The shops are filled, not only with their normal stock, but a flood of special seasonal “present” books, most of which will be of little real interest in a month or so. To help readers navigate this swamp of printed…
The reopening of Notre Dame, which took place finally on December 8, is one of the great ecclesiastical events of the year, saved for the final days of 2024, giving the world something real to celebrate. The restoration of the cathedral, as previous articles in these pages have noted, has been a task fraught with…
As I was saying at the end of last week’s article, the turnout in the General Election was disappointing – 59.7%? Do we value our democracy enough? On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) we heard from Art O’Leary, CEO of the Electoral Commission, pointing that one of the problems outlined was inaccuracy in the…
I am grateful to Finghin Collins for keeping me up to date about the next Dublin International Piano Competition taking place from May 9 to 16 2025. The Irish preliminary rounds are scheduled for Friday December 20 at the RIAM’s Whyte Recital Hall beginning at 09.15am and concluding at approximately 5.30pm with the results expected around 6pm. Twelve competitors – Adam…
The selected choices of our reviewers Joe Carroll My choice is tripartite: Patrick Kavanagh: Collected Poems, Tarry Flynn and the biography of the poet by Antoinette Quinn, none of them new, but still to be found in the shops. On a visit to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre in Inniskeen I picked up a new…
Judging by exit polls from our own General Election and the US Presidential Election, immigration wasn’t as much of a concern to the voters as we might have thought from watching the aggro on the streets and in the tweets. Heart and Soul (BBC World Service, Friday) took a personal and spiritual approach to the…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello