When organisations are caught out doing something wrong it often happens that they get defensive and opt for cover up and obfuscation. Whistleblowers can be treated as pariahs rather than being welcomed as liberating the organisation from corruption or malpractice. This certainly seemed to be the case in Mr Bates v. the Post Office (UTV/ITV…
Looking back on the year just ended, I had a whimsical notion to reflect for a change on what we rarely if ever see in the broadcast media. And if I appear to be complaining too much, check out my Review of the Year from the December 21 edition for its positivity! It’s so rare…
A new deal on the State files annual release This year the reports on the State files’ annual release, which has become very much a fixture of the turnover between Christmas and the New Year, will take a different form as it appears in the pages of the papers and in other media. Rather than…
In the days after Christmas 1877, the Freeman’s Journal published a series of five articles that are generally acknowledged as the earliest piece of investigative journalism in Ireland.
I refused to become a Barbenheimer during the year. When I was growing up there was a perfectly respectable practice of showing ‘small’ pictures and ‘big’ ones, despite the threat of the infamous ‘Paramount decree’ of 1948.
John Mulderig One promising way to get in the holiday mood is to watch a Christmas-themed movie. And, since yuletide films naturally tend to qualify as family-friendly, they can also provide an opportunity to gather the clan, make some popcorn and relax together. Following, in alphabetical order, are capsule reviews of eight such pictures with…
When I look back on the year in the media I usually see what comes to mind before re-reading my columns. This gives me a good impression of what really stands out, though I’m often surprised by what I’ve forgotten about. The first thing that springs to mind is war. Last year it was the…
Thomas McCarthy Theo Dorgan’s Once Was A Boy (Dedalus Press, Dublin) is a memoir of childhood told through poems, many of them written in highly effective tercets. The book is a singular act of recovery, like the best memoir, of a near-inaccessible past through precise description and a child’s heightened awareness. This is a wonderful…
The Universe Provides: Finding Miracles and Inspiration in Unexpected Places, by Eddie Gilmore (Darton, Longman & Todd, £9.99) At the beginning of December and the coming of the Christmas season, Eddie Gilmore had only been a couple of weeks in Ireland. He came here to work at An Síol, the L’Arche residence down in Callan…
Lift Up Their Hearts: Visiting Older People, Guidelines and Resources, by Mary Threadgold RSC (Messenger Publications, €6.95) This little booklet presents the essence of the experience of many years that Sr Mary Threadgold has worked with patients of all kinds, especially the elderly. It falls into two parts, the first dealing with the skills to…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone