Downfall of a King: Juan Carlos of Spain, by Paul Preston (William Collins, £30.00 / €35.50) Paul Preston is one of the foremost historians of modern Spain. He has written sixteen books about the history of Spain since the late 19th century, most of them describing different aspects of the Civil War. Preston, an…
“I’m not one for analysing my work,” says artist Paul Rowen in Guggi, a documentary on the artist-cum-sculptor with that moniker currently showing at the Irish Film Institute. When I heard his words I thought: You could have fooled me. He seemed to be engaging in little other than such analysis for the past hour.…
I’m a fan of practical AI tools, but conscious of the broader dangers involved. ‘The Vatican’s AI Battle’ was the rather alarmist subtitle of Heart and Soul (BBC World Service, Friday). The issue raised was “What a God-like Artificial Intelligence might mean for humanity”. American priest in the Vatican, Fr Michael Baggot, who lectured in…
Pathway to the Cosmos: The alignment of megalithic tombs in Ireland, Britain and Atlantic Europe, by Peigín Doyle (Wordwell in Association with the National Monuments Service, €10.00 / £8.99) The recent total eclipse of the sun, visible across a large swathe of Europe caused great excitement. It was certainly a rare lifetime event, but…
Remember the Children, a novel by Lucy Beckett (Gracewing, £20.00 / €23.50) This novel is the final part of a trilogy, the two earlier parts of which, entitled In the Grieving of Her Days and A Late Finding, were much admired on their publication also by Gracewing. This latest book deals with the experiences…
Forbidden Ireland: Church and State – 1951 to The Present Day, by T. P. O’Mahony, introduction by Rosita Sweetman (Mercier Press. €16.99 / £14.50) T. P. O’Mahony was for many years the religious affairs correspondent first for the Irish Press in Dublin and then later for the Cork Examiner. He has written several books…
The world is currently trying to come to grips with the recent death of the much-loved singer Glen Hansard after a motorcycle crash near the Wren’s Nest pub. I know how treacherous the roads around there are. I found this out the hard way myself, having had a car accident after coming out of The…
With Heritage Week running currently, it was good to see aspects of our spiritual heritage getting attention in the media. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) reporter Joe Caulfield spoke to some of the pilgrims on St Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, described as one of the oldest Christian pilgrimages, attracting pilgrims for over 1500…
I have a distinct disadvantage in writing about the new IMAX version of The Odyssey, for I actually studied the Greek original at school. We had on our course over some six years the works of Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, and others. Not mind you the whole of The Odyssey, but only Book VI, which in the…
The Men and Women of the Anglo-Irish Treaty Delegations 1921, edited by Fiona Murray and Eda Sagarra (Laurelmount Press, €16.99 / £14.99) The Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 is the name given to the “Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland 6 December 1921”. This book provides a detailed account of the two…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello