Reforming Galway: Civic society, religious change and St Nicholas collegiate church, 1550-1750 by Raymond Gillespie (Four Courts Press, €50.00 / £45.00) Raymond Gillespie, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maynooth, died in March of this year, while this book was in the very final stages of production. Reforming Galway is thus the last work of a…
The Restructuring of Irish Dioceses edited by Eugene Duffy (Dominican Publications, €20.00 / £17.50) This book, the publishers explain, “provides a timely and thought-provoking exploration of the challenges facing the Catholic Church. The boundaries of Ireland’s 26 dioceses, unchanged since the 12th century, no longer reflect the distribution of the Catholic population.” But such demographic change…
As promised last time round here is a little more about Waterford-born composer William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865). Now, it must be remembered Wallace revelled in story telling with one commentator claiming he was ‘charming but unprincipled, and his habitual untruthfulness makes it hard to determine real facts about him’. Wallace definitely was in Mexico City…
With TV and Radio, I yearn for something different, unexpected and original. I rarely get it – predictability is the order of the day. The interview with Irish Times Religious Affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry on Brendan O’Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday) fell for the most part into the ‘predictable’ category as the host teased out…
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World – and Globalisation Began by Valerie Hansen (Viking / Penguin, £20.00 / €23.50) Having been reared on the idea, common enough in the 19th century and later, that the year 1000 was rife with fears of an imminent Day of Judgement, I was a little surprised to read…
The Irish in the Resistance: The untold stories of the ordinary heroes who resisted Hitler by Clodagh Finn and John Morgan (Gill Books, €15.99 / £13.99) Ireland was neutral in World War 11 but as a concession to embattled Britain, Taoiseach Eamon de Valera did not prevent Irish citizens from enlisting in the British forces. But…
The Return of the White Canons: The Modern Norbertines in Britain by Aidan Nichols (Gracewing, £12.99 / €14.99) Aidan Nichols is a Dominican friar, with a special interest in ecumenism, who has an established reputation as a writer on Catholic theology and culture. His latest book concerns the revival of the White Canons, the Canons Regular…
Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of TV drama, especially drama series. I don’t watch too many comedies, but I have a few favourites. One of these is Young Sheldon (RTE One, Fridays). Comedy or not, of late it has been tackling some serious matters, like the mother, Mary (Zoe Perry), being alienated…
When Mary Robinson was young, she used to look out the window of her home in Victoria Terrace, Ballina, and wonder if she could change the world. Her opportunity to do so came in 1990 when she was elected president of Ireland. Aoife Kelleher’s documentary, Mrs Robinson (12A), is a timely tribute to her as…
Jerusalem Through the Ages: From its Beginnings to the Crusades by Jodi Magness (Oxford University Press, £30.99/€36.50) Author Jodi Magness is a distinguished archaeologist at the height of her career who specialises in ancient Palestine from its beginnings up the Middle Ages. Over several years she had to be persuaded to write this book, but many…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone