Robert De Niro is 80 this week. The most acclaimed actor of his generation has been appearing in films with religious subtexts almost since he started out, most notably in the films he made with his Catholic friend from Little Italy, Martin Scorsese. Scorsese was a former altar boy who once studied to be a…
This week we conclude our ‘Summer Series’ with a final group, this time of five apostles, with very varied if obscure lives. James the Less The profusion of persons named James surrounding Jesus in the years of his public life led in time to a sense of confusion, which the writings of the Fathers…
The National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (NYOI) was founded in 1971 by the redoubtable Olive Smith, a woman of unusual vision when it came to getting young people involved in music. In her quest she was ably assisted by a number of similarly minded individuals not least Dublin-born violinist Hugh Maguire who at various times…
Going to Sunday Mass these days you can be demoralised by the lack of young people present. It’s great then to see young people enthused by their faith, and so it was on World Youth Day in Lisbon last weekend. So many of the events were impressive and I managed to follow many of them.…
This is a question many people must ask themselves from time to time. To answer it we have to have clearly in mind who the full complement of Apostles called by Jesus were. Matthew (10:1-7) provides a list of the original apostles. “And the names of the 12 apostles are these: The first, Simon who…
Elvis Presley, as I mentioned in my review of Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis last year, feared he would be forgotten after he came out of the army in 1960. The rock ‘n’ roll boom of the 50s had passed its peak by then. He thought he would be irrelevant to the new generation about to…
True crime dramas can be riveting especially if you can’t remember the original story. The strangest things happen, plot developments you’d never accept in fiction. You just hope that events are accurately portrayed and that the real people involved are respected. The Sixth Commandment (BBC One, Tuesday) came to an end last week and it…
This fascinating memoir by Tommie Gorman provides a most informative account of the civil and political events in Ireland – North and South – during his time as a journalist and broadcaster. It follows the course of a very varied life. Tommie was born at Hazelwood, near Sligo, in April 1956. He received his early…
A little while ago, prowling in one of the few remaining second-hand book shops in Dublin, I picked up by chance a little pamphlet which I had long known about, but had never seen. Called simply Irish Folklore and Tradition in a plain grey wrapper, it was issued in March 1938 by the Department of Education, in…
Every summer sees the publication of numbers of books about the Camino, taken of course, to mean the ‘The Way of St James’. These days this has to some extent ceased to be religious, as for many it does not now end at the Shrine of St James in the Cathedral at Compostela, but in…
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan