I know media outlets have to report the bad news, but sometimes I question the priorities and the prominence. So, it’s welcome to hear a good news story, with people at their inspiring best. The story of Sr Helen Culhane on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio One, Wednesday) fit the bill. A Sister of Mercy in every…
Books Editor This year’s Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival will take place in Newbridge College, Co. Kildare from July 21 to 27 inclusive. It should not be missed. The festival has been held every last week in July since 1987, an unmatched record in Ireland. It celebrates, of course, one of the greatest of Victorian…
While We Watched (15A) is an engrossing documentary from director Vinay Shukla (An Insignificant Man) that shines a laser beam into a dark porthole of India. It follows veteran TV reporter Ravish Kumar into dangerous territory as he struggles with Hindu nationalists and other forces seeking to silence him. Kumar has won many prizes for…
More Book Reviews 1896-2023 by J. Anthony Gaughan (Kingdom Books, €24.00/ £21.00) J. Anthony Gaughan is one of our regular reviewers and has been for many years. This is the second and concluding collection of his book reviews of all over the years since 1975. Many of these reviews appeared in these pages, but by no…
The Contemporary Woman: Can she really have it all, by Michele Guinness (Hodder, £10.99/ €12.99) Author Michele Guinness is one of the Guinness clan, the Anglo-Irish brewing family of longstanding fame, but only by marriage. Back in 1999 she wrote a widely selling family history called The Guinness Spirit, which many found both entertaining and…
The Douai Martyrs, by Gerard Skinner (Gracewing Publishing, £14.99/ €17.99) Gerard Skinner, who once studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and later at the Venerable English College in Rome. He is the author of many books, including the valuable Newman the Priest. Here, however, he turns to a theme which should perhaps…
Ensemble casts behaving weirdly? Outlandish things being said by people who don’t seem to think they’re outlandish? Cartoon-like characters cast adrift in a comic book world? Yes, folks, it has to be Wes Anderson. When Robert Altman died, I wondered where I’d go for my fix of familial dysfunctionality. There was no need to worry.…
Media stories go through several phases – at first a story can make a minor impact (the slow-burn phase); then it gets legs (the leggy phase); then the controversy gets intense and finally there’s the fizzling out phase. Other stories just blow up unexpectedly scattering news shards all over the place. Controversy The controversy over…
The hate crimes legislation was discussed in the Seanad last week, with spirited contributions circulating on social media – especially from Senators Rónán Mullen and Michael McDowell (both raising serious concerns) and Senator Pauline O’Reilly (Green Party) supporting the legislation on the grounds of the common good. This didn’t get much coverage in regular media,…
Shaping the Assembly: How our buildings form us in worship, ed. by Thomas O’Loughlin (Messenger Publications, €25.00/£23.23) Thomas O’Loughlin is a distinguished scholar who has taught at several institutions in England, retiring as a professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham. This book brings into focus several of his long standing concerns. It is a…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello