All those years after his death in 1980, Alfred Hitchcock still remains not only the ‘Master of the Macabre’, his more ubiquitous soubriquet, but also the supreme purveyor of enticing visual grammar in storytelling. In Mark Cousins’ fascinating documentary My Name is Alfred Hitchcock (15) – which I recommend you watch in tandem with the…
Can comedy go too far? Oh yes, I think so. I don’t see free speech as an absolute right, and most people draw the line somewhere. Disputes tend to happen over the where the line should be drawn, and over who should draw it. The question was posed by presenter Ciara Kelly on Newstalk Breakfast…
RHA exhibition at the National Gallery, Room 21 at the National Gallery until October 22. Curated by Kate McBride and others from both the RHA and the NGI. The limited exhibition at the National Gallery is one of some special interest concerning the advancement of women artists in modern Ireland. The Royal Irish Academy during…
Trieste Joyce School 2023 James Joyce lived in Trieste from 1905 to 1915, albeit with one interval of nine months spent in Rome in 1906-7. He moved to neutral Switzerland because of the First World War in 1915, but returned briefly to Trieste in 1919 before going to Paris where he would remain for almost…
Thomas McCarthy * * * Song of the Goldfinch, by John F. Deane (Veritas, €19.99 pb/ £17.50pb) Have we forgotten how universal our secure and graceful Irish Catholic life once was? Well, that is, as the song goes, if your Dad was rich and your Mom was beautiful – true wealth, of course, was then to…
The Philosophers’ Daughters, edited by Peter Vardy (Darton, Longman and Todd, £12.99/ €15.50) Peter Vardy was vice-principal of Heythrop College, University of London, and now runs the largest conferences for students of Philosophy and Religious Studies in Britain. In this thought-provoking book he has gathered a number of questions posed by his two young daughters, Petra…
Described as an eccentric opportunist, ‘Mr Charles, the Hungarian’ came to Dublin in March 1742 when he tried to steal a march on George Frideric Handel who had arrived in the city some months earlier. Taking up residence in Abbey Street, Handel remained in Dublin until the following August. During this time he finished his…
One of the many concerning news items last week was the decision of the US government to supply cluster bombs to Ukraine. And this was after they had previously condemned Russia’s use of these weapons, banned in 123 countries (not including the USA or Russia), because of their indiscriminate nature and the dangers they pose…
‘Irish Explorers of the Jordan Rift Valley and the Euphrates Valley in the 1830s: Scientific Adventure and Imperialism’, in George Moore: Dublin, Paris, Hollywood, by Haim Goren, edited by Conor Montague and Adrian Frazier (Irish Academic Press, €26.99 pb/ €44.99 hb) I was recently given this book as a present from someone who knew…
A Quest for Meaning: A Journey Through Philosophy, Science and Spirituality, by Gearóid Ó Donnchadha (Orpen Press, €14.99/ £12.99) This is a stimulating book by an author who in his lifetime as a teacher invited and delighted in argument and debate. Gearóid Ó Donnchadha was a very committed priest and a very committed academic. Born on…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello