The codex now for sale was once a part of the Bodmer Hoard, some of the items of which are now in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin. A visit to the Chester Beatty Library in the precincts of Dublin Castle will reveal not only one of Ireland’s finest museums, but also a…
This is the year of the regular biannual art exhibition in Venice bears the title ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. Opened on April 20 it runs until November 24. This year sees a return to the original post-war format of national pavilions. The result has been an increase of interest from many new countries outside Europe, especially in…
So many modern controversies involve clashes between conscience and state, between the Government and the governed, between conflicting world views. Issues of Conscience v. the State were central to the Terrence Malick film A Hidden Life (Channel 4, Sunday) – the true story of Catholic conscientious objector Franz Jagerstatter in Austria during World War II.…
A recent NSO concert at the NCH had the orchestra’s principal conductor Jaime Martín directing a Slavonic programme through music by Smetana (Vltava, a marvellous musical picture of that river as it flows through the Bohemian countryside and celebrating the composer’s bicentenary this year), Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations had Madrid-born Pablo Ferrández as…
The Hidden Ireland by Daniel Corkery (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, Oregon, $35.00 / €33.50 / £26.00; other editions widely available on line) This a reissue of a book by an established writer and patriot which was written a century ago, back in 1924, and issued in Dublin by an Irish publisher. It is a cultural landmark…
Speculative Minds in Georgian Ireland: Novelty, Experiment and Widening Horizons Toby Barnard and Alison FitzGerald (Four Courts Press, €50.00 / £45.95) Looking back on the Ireland of the 18th Century it appears at first glance to be settled picture, but on closer examination is turns out to be something of a jigsaw puzzle, with a multitude…
The Crisis of Culture: Identity Politics and the Empire of Norms Translated by Cynthia Schoch and Trista Selous (Hurst, £20.00) I have promised myself that should I win the lottery, I would employ an ‘explainer’. There is so much about the modern world that I do not ‘get’. And it is not only TV advertisements and…
Few people have names more applicable to the way they lived than Amy Winehouse. How many hours did she spend in such establishments? She died at 27, thereby becoming a member of the ‘27 Club’, an ill-fated gathering of rock legends that also included people like Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Robert Johnson, Janis…
So many important matters were teased out in the media last week – it’s challenging to have a life and keep on top of it all! There was a telling interview on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday). Cormac Ó hEadhra interviewed the Iranian Ambassador and pressed him hard on Iranian support for Hamas. The surprising…
The big summer exhibition at the Ulster Museum in Belfast this year will be the exhibition of two important Caravaggio’s together for the first time in centuries. One is from the National Gallery in London, The Supper at Emmaus (1601); the other is lent by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, the now…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone