Further discussions on suicide last week were prompted by a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying. The debate is riddled with euphemism – maybe killing would be a better description, and intentional killing at that. As is often the case, when Newstalk deals with the issue you get a variety of voices.…
A Quiet Space: A short history of the Sanctuary, by Sr Stan Kennedy and Sr Síle Wall (Veritas, €16.99/ £14.90) This little book is a short history guide to the Sanctuary, founded by the redoubtable Sr Stan and her associates. She herself writes: “Over 23 years ago, we had a vision for the Sanctuary.…
While the NSO’s season at the National Concert Hall began early last month, the Hall’s own International Series commenced on September 19 with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by fellow Hungarian András Keller. Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard was the soloist in Bartók’s soulful 3rd Piano Concerto written shortly before the composer’s death in…
The visit of Pope Francis to Mongolia elicited some curious reactions, which show that many people are far from appreciating the role of Mongolia, not only in medieval history, but also nowadays and the place in today’s world the country’s government is attempting to build. It was pointed out that there were only about 1,450…
Sean O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy – The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926) – was the first effort at demythologising the Irish revolution in the public sphere. As Conor Cruise O’Brien wrote, these plays “are not revolutionary, and are even counter-revolutionary in their implications and…
With God You are Never Alone: The Great Papal Addresses, by Benedict XVI (Bloomsbury, £14,95 / €17.50) In this book, which is bound to secure a wide readership, the 10 most important speeches of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, are collected by Fr Federico Lombardi, of the Ratzinger-Benedict Foundation in Rome. These speeches reveal the…
Somebody should put up a statue of Ken Loach. For decades he’s been making great movies about little guys taking on the big institutions. In The Old Oak (15A) the enemy isn’t a conglomerate but a man’s own contemporaries. Refugees TJ Ballantine (Dave Turner) is the proprietor of the eponymous pub, a run-down establishment he’s…
Judging by the video footage, those protests outside Leinster House last week were intimidating and offensive. Yet sneering at the protestors only increases the alienation that gives fuel to these activities. The matter was debated widely, but an item on the Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, Thursday) captured the essence of it. Presenter Kieran Cuddihy’s opening comments…
Thomas O’Loughlin This week we continue the exploration we began in the first part of this essay, published in the last issue. Disputes and churches If it were not for the conflicts in the Aegean churches we might never have had the genuine letters of Paul. There were disputes about practices and unwillingness to welcome…
France on trial: The case of Marshal Pétain, by Julian Jackson (Allan Lane, £25.00/€29.50) Marshal Philippe Pétain, head of the collaborationist Vichy regime in France during World War II, was put on trial for treason at the end of the war in 1945. It was essentially a show trial, ordered by the provisional government newly installed…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone