A Holy Mess: Making the Most of Our Misfortunes, by Donagh O’Shea (Dominican Publications, €14.99 / £12.50) I was only a few pages into this excellent book when I came upon a passage discussing the 1951 catechism, so well known to an older generation. From time to time efforts are made by well meaning but…
Letter from America On the last Sunday in February, I attended Mass at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia. I was visiting that city to attend the 2025 national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies. The cathedral is sumptuously decorated, and inevitably that distracted me from my prayers. Among…
One of the Czech Republic’s leading ensembles – the Prague Symphony Orchestra – was founded in 1934. The band made its first Irish appearance at the NCH earlier this month in a programme that, not surprisingly, made the music of Antonín Dvořák its main feature under the baton of principal conductor Tomáš Brauner. The evening…
The Carlow Sugar Factory: The Extraordinary Story of an Irish Industrial Icon, by Christopher Power (Created by Alhaus for Carlow County Council Centenary Committee, supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; available gratis from Carlow Public Library; email library@carlowcoco.ie) To mark the centenary of the creation of the sugar factory at…
It’s a tale of beginnings and endings this week! I enjoyed the first episode of the new biblical series House of David, launched on Amazon Prime last Thursday. I’m not a great fan of biblical epics – they often opt for spectacle rather than spirit, so the Bible, I’d suggest, is better read than seen!…
Travellers in the Golden Realm: How Mughal India Connected England to the World, by Lubaaba Al-Azami (John Murray, £25.00 / €30.50 ) This is a most arresting book, though not always for the reasons the author may have hoped for. It was, it seems, originally to be published under a different title First Encounters:…
This Glowing Place: New & Selected Poems by Pádraig J. Daly (Scotus Press, €15.00 / £12.50) John F. Deane This exceptional book has been long awaited, and thoroughly rewards the reader. The cover image, of the Liffey and the city in the glimmering twilight, reflects the ecology of the poet’s life and imagination, the inner…
The worlds of religion and politics are often dominated by major figures, characters and leaders with big personalities – some of them will feature here. And so it was that Pope Francis was one of those giants that figured large in the media last week. Watching ITV News last Wednesday I was conscious, during Ellie…
Have you ever seen a convent of nuns that comprises a former beauty queen, a drug dealer whose life was – literally – saved by the Bible, a nun who wears a tattoo, one who swears, one who jokes about the decapitation of John the Baptist, one who sways her hips as she dances to…
A Tract for Our Times: A Retrospective on Joe Lee’s Ireland 1919-1985, editor Miriam Nyhan Grey, with contribution by eight others. (Glucksman Ireland House, NYU / UCD Press, US$50.00 / €40.00) Historically minded readers should not be alarmed by the title to this festschrift: it seems to be intended as merely a fancy piece of styling,…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone