Ruadhán JonesI don’t have a Smartphone. I only have a stupid one. It’s a Nokia.
Rise and fall of smartphone prototype
Category: Reviews
The department of dead ends
Peter Costello
This unusual exhibition at the Irish Architectural Archive (IAA), which has another week to run, is well worth catching, and the names of those mounting it should be noted for a sight of their future work.
St Ignatius ‘the everyday mystic’
Ignatius Loyola Christian Mystic, by Brian O’Leary (Messenger Books €19.95/ £18.95) Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises have been explored by readers since they were written, and have proved over the centuries to be immensely influential. The idea of ‘composition of place’ can even be traced, so I believe, in the earliest impulses to write…
A visit to the Palace of Westminster
A further recollection from an active literary life A most memorable day in my life as a writer was my visit to the Palace of Westminster, the home of the British Parliament. This was occasioned by the publication in 1973 of my book Listowel and its Vicinity, which included an account of the Hare…
‘Safer’ suicide…would be funny if it wasn’t so sad
Brendan O’Regan
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 place in which to care for yourself and your spirit
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.…
Sometimes pieces are noticeable by their absence
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…
Francis followed papal emissaries to Mongolia 500 years later
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…
O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy: the Druid production of his three plays set in the Irish revolution
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…
Words of wisdom for the modern day
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…