“You Will Dye at Midnight”: Threatening Letters in Victorian Ireland by Donal P. McCracken (Eastwood, €20.00) The news media these days are filled with reports of threats of death and violence being made, not just against celebrities, politicians, media stars, bishops, and such like, but against even internet users careless enough to expose themselves to comment…
A Life in Medicine, from Asclepius to Beckett by Eoin O’Brien, foreword by John Banville (Lilliput Press, €25.00 / £21.00) Irish literature is filled with examples of leading medical men, who were also creative and bold litterateurs. One thinks of Sir William Wilde, Oliver St John Gogarty, J. B. Lyons and many others. As a medical…
sometimes the secular media takes an interest in religious faith only when it involves some sort of distorted version of religion. Having reviewed it a few episodes in, last Monday I finally got to the end of Under the Banner of Heaven (RTÉ One)– the true crime drama about murder in a Mormon community. I…
Synodality and the Recovery of Vatican II: A new way for Catholics edited by Stephen J. McKinney, Thomas O’Loughlin & Beáta Tóth (Messenger Publications, €25.00) As the title suggests this is a book with a studied purpose, but whose intentions have been caught up with by the passage of events in a way the editors could not have expected.…
The Golden Thread: The Life and Gifts of Miss Frances Ellis by Patrick Heren (Gracewing, £20.00 / €25.00) The past it was once said is a foreign country: they do things differently there. And so they do as this interesting book about a major benefactor reveals. This is an exploration of a Catholic world Irish readers…
Sir William Orpen: A family legacy by Dominic Lee (Office of Public Works, €10.00) The Vision of a 19th Century Lensman Goddard Orpen 1852-1932 by Jeremy Hill (Monskgrange Archive, €65.00.) For an outing on a fine summer’s day, the house and estate of Farmleigh are a very attractive destination. At the moment, there are two exhibitions of…
The silly season is upon us with its customary crop of seasonal treats. Noah’s Ark (G), is an animated film in which a pair of mice called Vini (a poet who suffers from stage fright) and Tito (a guitarist) become stowaways on the eponymous ark, using the beauty of words and song to ensure they…
Last week started with US President Joe Biden calling for a cooling of the temperature of public discourse. The week ended with him bowing out of the presidential race. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) Luke Ming Flanagan MEP hadn’t got the Biden memo on cooling and called Ursula Von Der Leyen a “monster”.…
Dublin’s fondness for Handel’s music goes back to 1742 when the composer lived in Abbey Street. He had brought with him from London the score of his oratorio Messiah, which had its first performance in the Fishamble Street Musick Rooms on April 13 that year. Handel directed the performance from the harpsichord with London-born Dublin-domiciled…
Foreign Languages: Victorian language learning & the shaping of modern Ireland, by Phyllis Gaffney (UCD Press, €30.00 / £25.00) Though intended initially for an academic audience, Dr Phyllis Gaffney’s new book will have an appeal to anyone in any way interested in the evolution of modern Irish culture, not merely literary, but also social and…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone