A recent event in the National Concert Hall’s International Concert Series brought young UK pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason to Dublin for the first time. Isata is the eldest of the family of seven each of whom appears to be endowed with an unusual element of musical genius. The Kanneh-Masons come from Nottingham where London-born father, Stuart,…
by the editors of Sacred Space (Messenger Publications, €7.95/£6.95) The season of Advent begins at the end of next week, so now is the time to acquire this little seasonal volume, from a long familiar source. Through the prayers and meditations readers will be reminded of the synodal journey on which the people of God…
Vatican Council Memories by Bishop Michael Smith (Veritas Publications, €19.99/£21.99) This is a fascinating inside account of the Second Vatican Council, arguably one of the most important events in the history of the Church in recent times. In 1959, soon after his election, Pope John XXIII announced his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council. In…
Pondering President Putin’s remarks on Russia’s role in history, I have come to think that some of Putin’s seemingly strange views might possibly be explained by the maps he used as a schoolboy. Like so many educated people around the world, his picture of the world has been seriously distorted by the types of school…
Maybe we’ll look back on 2022 as the year of women in films. A documentary on Mother Teresa was recently released, as was one about Lyra McKee, the investigative journalist who was murdered by dissident republicans on Holy Thursday in 2019. Also a documentary on the poet and novelist Doireann Ní Ghriofa and the film…
I’m conflicted about the Kerry priest controversy. Certainly much of the media coverage was ill-informed and unnecessarily confrontational. The basics of what Fr Seán Sheehy said at those Masses in Listowell was orthodox Catholic teaching, which is by far the main thing, but the message could have been delivered in a more appealing, compassionate, sensitive…
by Christopher Moriarty Nature praising God: Towards a theology of the natural world by Dermot A. Lane (Messenger Publications, €14.95/£12.99) The word ‘nature’ in the title of this remarkable book refers to the universe with one important exception. The exception is humanity and the two are generally posed as being in opposition to each other.…
Leinster House: A House with Three Lives An exhibition at the Architectural Archive 45 Merrion Square Until November 25; admission free, 9am-5pm. In recent months anyone going down Kildare Street in central Dublin and passing the noble facade of Leinster House, one of the city’s finest public buildings, will have been able to read the…
Northern Ireland 1921–2021: Centenary Historical Perspectives Edited by Caoimhe Nic Dháibhead, Marie Coleman and Paul Bew (Ulster Historical Foundation, €19.99/£16.95) Ireland was never rigorously partitioned like Germany, Cyprus or Korea. Churches, sporting and cultural organisations continued to operate island-wide. Since the peace process and the Single European Market, any hard physical border is gone. Ireland’s…
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir by Philip Yancey (Hodder and Stoughton, £12.50/£10.99) Considering how influential they are, the forms of faith in the United States are very important, even when not to the taste of Europeans. The tropes of the Episcopalians, the bare style of the Congregationalists, these would be familiar, with echoes of…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan