Exhibition in The Long Room, Trinity College Library, open now, continuing to June 30, 2026. For details, visit visittrinity.ie/book-of-kells-experience. Entrance charge. Booking essential; visit tcd.ie/visitors/. Character is Better than Wealth: The Enduring Legacy of Michael Davitt’ is the broad title of an exhibition currently on display in the Long Room of Trinity College Library. Drawing on…
Rory O’Connor: To Defend the Republic, by Gerard Shannon (Merrion Press €19.99 / £17.50) Rory O’Connor was the leading Republican combatant in the Four Courts in the opening stage of the Civil War in April 1922, yet has had to wait for over 100 years to have a proper biography. He was often described…
Over the last half-century or so, art history has become one of the most popular subjects to be pursued at universities. This trend has produced large numbers of people to provide new insights both into the lives of artists and how art is conceived and made. This is all to the good. Yet sometimes there…
Eock Hudson used to say, “I can’t play a loser because I don’t look like one.” George Clooney doesn’t either, which makes his casting in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly (15, Netflix) questionable. It’s a film about a kind of male Norma Desmond – the faded star of Sunset Boulevard – trying to find out what’s…
The Miracle of the Universe: Science, Christian Faith and Personal Experience, by Jim O’Connell, MHM (London St Pauls Publishing, €11.99 / £10.95) The author of this book is a Mill Hill Missionary, who has spent many years in Kenya, as well as at home, teaching and editing. This is his third book, and again…
Under the Blue Seraphim, by Deirdre Cartmill (Arlen House, €15.00 / £13.00) Under the Blue Seraphim, published by the excellent Arlen House, is Deirdre Cartmill’s fourth collection of poetry. At a time when the sea of faith appears to be going out, it is good to see a poet who affirms the light, especially…
Within the Catholic fold, there are all sorts of ways of being religious or spiritual – as the Mary Chapin Carpenter song says, “There’s a Keeper for Every Flame”. Some focus a lot on the sufferings of Jesus, and on various devotions not essential to the faith. There has been much interest scientifically and spiritually…
The Living Image: Returning to the Heart, by Anna Burke (Messenger Publications, €9.95 / £8.95) Turning from Jim O’Connell to Anna Burke is to encounter a very different apprehension of the human and divine; yet what she has to say seems to grow out from what he writes in a living way, underlining the connectivity…
Dad, by Aubrey Malone (Penniless Press Publications, £.7.99; a print-on-demand book from the publisher Ken Clay at pennilesspress.co.uk; for residents of Ireland, through aubreypmalone@hotmail.com; or locally at the Book Stand, Tone Street, Ballina, Co. Mayo, F26 VF30; tel.: (096) 60370.) Aubrey Malone will be familiar to readers as the film critic of this paper, though he…
Vatican Spies, from the Second World War to Pope Francis, by Yvonnick Denoël (Hurst and Company, £25.00 / €32.99) This book first appeared in French back in 2021, so it is about time that an English language version appeared, for it will certainly be of great interest, not only to Catholics of all kinds, but also…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan