I was triggered too much last week so I’m edgy. I get triggered when I hear stories about trigger warnings being added to innocuous or even worthy material. Last year it was the (trenchantly anti-racist) novel To Kill a Mockingbird, last week it was Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen! Lunchtime Live (Newstalk, Tuesday) took a…
I Judge No One: A Political Life of Jesus by David Lloyd Dusenbury (Hurst Publishers, £25.00/€30.50) Frank Litton The horrible costs of the Ukrainian war in human lives and material destruction are agreed. One expert analysis reports that an estimated 180,000 Russian soldiers, 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers, plus 30,000 civilians have been killed, putting it in…
Joyce, Aristotle and Aquinas, by Fran O’Rourke (A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian DG. Knowles; University of Florida Press, US$90hb/US$35pb/£38.95pb /€44.50pb) Today marks the anniversary of James Joyce’s birth in 1882, the first indeed in what can be seen as the second century of Ulysses. That book is now so…
The Irish Department of Finance 1959-99, by Ciarán Casey (Institute of Public Administration, €35.00/£30.99). The Irish Department of Finance traces its beginning to the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922. It retained the work-practices and most of the personnel of its previous existence as an ancillary branch of the British Treasury. In…
Following the ever-versatile RTÉ Concert Orchestra to the National Concert Hall under Japanese conductor Kensho Watanabe, I was surprised to see a notice in the foyer indicating that programmes for the concert could only be obtained by placing one’s mobile phone against it and taking a snapshot. I never bring my mobile to the NCH…
His Homeward Journey: The Life and Works of Pope Benedict XVI, by Bishop Fintan Monahan (Veritas, €9.99 / £8.99) This short life of the Pope Emeritus was well advanced at the time of his recent death. It is exactly the sort of book which many people would have liked to have at hand then, for…
Last Friday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and there were several related programmes of interest during the week. How The Holocaust Began (BBC Two, Monday) was one of the most chilling. So many documentaries have been made that it must be hard to find some fresh angle. Even so, it is essential that we are frequently…
The Parish as Oasis: An Introduction to Practical Environmental Care, by Kevin Hargaden and Ciara Murphy (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£12.95) The very title of this book is enough to startle and attract my imagination as I had been reading a travel account of a journey through Ethiopia, that always troubled land, soon after the overthrow of…
These days we hear a great deal about Catholic dioceses being united, and also of parishes being run together, all because of the critical lack of priests. The penchant of the administrative mind when faced by such a crisis to make the administrative area ever larger is always apparent. But is this right with parishes? How…
Babylon (18) isn’t just a film, it’s an experience. The first great release of 2023, it’s a simultaneous celebration and denunciation of a wild and wacky era in film-making. Everything Damien Chazelle does has the word ‘Big’ written all over it. If he isn’t careful, he’ll become our era’s answer to Cecil B. De Mille.…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone