A Gift of Joy and Hope by Pope Francis. Translated from the original Italian by Oonagh Stransky (Hodder & Stoughton, €17.99/£16.99) This title will be released on 29 September. This book by Pope Francis, his third official book, may seem to follow very quickly on the Pope’s recent pamphlet about the meaning of Christmas and the…
This month means new ‘seasons’ opening up not least the National Symphony Orchestra’s at the National Concert Hall, which began on September 9 with the orchestra in splendid form in music by Berg and Mahler. Dating from 1935, Berg’s Violin Concerto was written “in memory of an angel” – Manon Gropius, the recently deceased 19-year-old…
Sometimes you hear online about what seems to be a big story, but can’t find much if any coverage in the mainstream media. Sometimes they catch up, sometimes it never surfaces. I find the story of the oppression of the Church and other opposing voices in Nicaragua to be largely under the radar. So, it…
This now essential event is marked tomorrow with events of all kinds all over the cities, towns and counties of Ireland. For all the data about culture night, go to info@culturenight.ie. Wherever you live, whatever you care for, there will things for you in the programme. In my immediate location I am taken by the…
Estella Solomons: Still Moments, Room 31, NGI, continues to January 2023. Appreciation by Peter Costello This free exhibition, curated by Niamh MacNally, is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023. This new show at the National Gallery of Ireland is a small, of select…
The Chief: the Life of Lord Northcliffe by Andrew Roberts (Simon & Schuster, £25/€29.00) In Ulysses, James Joyce refers to “Harmsworth of the farthing press”. He thereby denigrates the great achievement of Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe, in creating the first mass circulation newspaper in these islands – the Daily Mail, launched in London in 1896. It was…
Admirabile Signum: The Meaning and Importance of the Nativity Scene Pope Francis (Veritas/Liberia Editrice Vaticana, €5.99) Here we are just back at school and college, and the first book about Christmas is already in the shops. What can this mean? Just as surprising is the name of the author of this little pamphlet. It is…
Last week I was reflecting on visionary political leadership, but I didn’t expect to be returning to the topic so soon. Queen Elizabeth II was one of those leaders, though perhaps ‘inspirational’ might be a better description. Her unexpected death last week was one of those impactful events that grabs a huge amount of media…
Saoirse Ronan can do anything – even a Dublin accent. Well she’s done everything else, right? Why not go back to her ‘real’ voice? It squeaked through in Brooklyn. Here we get the full “Dublin can be heaven/with a coffee at eleven” version. How strange that she chose the role of a trainee constable from…
Still Points: A Guide to living the Mindful Meditative Way by Bro. Richard OFM Cap (Hachette Books, €14.99/£12.99) Bro. Richard Hendrick is a Capuchin priest-friar working in Dublin. He wrote a long poem Lockdown which went viral. It was picked up by both the BBC and by CNN in North America. From there it went…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone