I am Infinitely Loved: A Month of Meditations by Brian Grogan SJ (Messenger Publications, €7.99/ £6.95) This is a new edition of a booklet first published back 2017. It was popular then, and in its new form will reach an even larger audience of those who are now regular readers of Brian Grogan’s many books.…
Samuel Goldwyn once said, “If you’ve got a message, send a telegram”. I’d add, if you want to preach, give a sermon. The new TV drama series The Woman in the Wall (BBC One, Sundays), three episodes in, is full of unsubtle messages and is certainly preachy. The story of the Magdalen laundries is mined…
Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics: Judging Dillon and Parnell, by Paul Bew (Oxford University Press, £25.00/ €29.50) The great Irish constitutional nationalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with its twin aims of land reform and Home Rule, has been largely disregarded and uncelebrated in the Ireland that emerged from the 1916…
Fragments of Truth: Pallottines in Kenya & Tanzania, with the Rwanda Dossier, volumes I & II, by Donal F. McCarthy SCA (Pallottines Ireland, Dundrum, Dublin; the copies are on a print on demand system and priced accordingly) The Pallottines are a religious congregation who are more formally known as the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Societas…
Sound of Freedom (15A) Tim Ballard is a former CEO of the Nazarene Fund. This was set up to help persecuted religious and ethnic minorities. He’s also the founder of an organisation called Operations. Underground Railroad which specialises in rescuing child victims of sex traffickers. Jim Caviezel, who took the role of Jesus in Mel…
A People under Siege: the Unionists of Northern Ireland, from Partition to Brexit and Beyond, by Aaron Edwards (Merrion Press, €19.99) A touchy defensiveness, if not downright paranoia, has often seemed to be the defining character of Ulster Unionism since it first began to emerge as a distinct political phenomenon in the 19th Century. Aaron…
I collect ironies, I even issue an #ironyalert on X/Twitter (ex-Twitter?) when I find them. There are some striking examples in relation to communication. Take the mobile phone for example – it promotes huge communication between friends, but can destroy communication with those who are in our company. How many times have we seen families…
Thomas McCarthy Testament, Micheal O’Siadhail (Baylor University Press, $24.99/ €22.99; distributed in Europe by Eurospan, email: direct.orders@marston.co.uk) In the Irish poetry world Micheal O’Siadhail has been a writer of towering brilliance for over 40 years. A life dedicated to language and ethics has seen him study in great depth both the structure of the…
Frank Litton Regime Change: Towards a Postliberal Future, Patrick J. Deneen (Forum Press/an imprint of Swift Press, £22.00/€27.50) Patrick J. Deneen’s Regime Change has attracted a good deal of attention. Reviewers have acknowledged his intelligence, his command of political philosophy and praised his writing skills. But they have baulked at his conclusions, claiming that…
It was good to see the theme of vocations getting prominence last week in the media. It was sparked by journalist Sean O’Rourke’s address to a gathering at Knock. He favoured encouraging young people to consider joining the priesthood. Stand-in presenter Jonathan Healy discussed the vocations crisis on the Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, Friday). David…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone