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…
As the saying goes, tempus fugit and with the arrival of September a new season has begun for a number of musical institutions not least the National Concert Hall, National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra and Music for Galway among a plethora of others. The NSO’s 2023/24 events got under way on September 9 with…
Sacred Space: The Prayerbook (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£12.95) A sure sign that the year is beginning to draw to an end is the early appearance of Sacred Space: The Prayerbook, the manual derived from the astonishing, globally popular online prayer site. This book has been appearing for many years and is always a sure-fire option for many as…
It’s the time of year for new programmes and the return of old shows. The most high-profile return was The Late Late Show (RTÉ One, Fridays). The pre-publicity was mighty, but some just said ‘meh’ and were bored. I’d say a huge audience tuned in just to see how the new host, Patrick Kielty, would…
Gabriel Fitzmaurice Choice/Rogha: A selection of poems by Desmond Egan, translated into Irish by Michael Hartnett (Goldsmith Press, €20.00/ £17.50) Desmond Egan is one of our greatest poets, certainly our greatest Catholic poet which, among other things, means that he contains multitudes. Michael Hartnett, a poet of equal stature, is a gifted translator from the…
Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) are close friends in South Korea during their youth in Celine Song’s heartbreaking film Past Lives (PG). Their paths divide when, at the age of twelve, Nora’s parents move to New York. Twelve years later, Hae locates Nora, managing to connect with her through Skype. He learns…
Thomas O’Loughlin While the image of ‘the pilgrim People of God’ has been central to formal understanding of the church since Vatican II – an event now more than two generations ago – its impact on the pew-level ecclesiology has been marginal. It was intended to be a biblically rich vision to replace the political…
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello