Leaves from the Cotton Tree, Celebrating Thirty Years of the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership, with a foreword by Claire Buckley, Ambassador of Ireland to Sierra Leone, edited by Joseph Bockarie and seven others (SLIP, Kilt ale, Dunsany, Co. Meath, €15.00 + $5.00 p+p; email martindillon@slip.ie for payment details.) The cotton tree of the title stands…
Journey into Light: The Challenge and Enchantment of Catholic Christianity by Roderick Strange (Hodder & Stoughton, £10.99/€12.99 pb) A concern of some parents’ over the last decades is a feeling that somehow schools do not seem to impart religion, by which they mean Catholic culture, to their children in quite the way it was once…
With numerous sponsors, including Hinch Distillery Company, the triennial Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition brought 36 young hopefuls, of whom nine were Irish, to the National Concert Hall last week to participate in its preliminary piano-accompanied rounds before being whittled down to six for the finale with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Laurent Wagner.…
Several of this week’s stories and programmes had me thinking about the importance of visionary leadership and how that quality is largely lacking these days, especially in the political arena. The death last week of Mikhail Gorbachev, former premier of the Soviet Union, reminded us of a time when political leaders East and West were…
How to Succeed in Secondary School: A Practical Guide by Tony Bellew (Orpen Press, €15.00/£13.00pb) These first weeks of September, what with the anxieties of students of all ages about going back to school, the stress and strain on teachers, parents, and indeed families is very real. Their worries are not just economic, but also…
Under pressure of space this week, the series on places of faith, having encompassed lesser known aspects of Northern Europe, crosses the Atlantic, moving from the shrines of the Old World in Germany to the shrines of the New World in South and North America, from very ancient places honouring Jesus and the Three Kings,…
Who stole the Papal Stone back in 1854…and why? I recently came on details of what might be called an American Catholic mystery, which I thought I might share with readers. I am always amazed at the enthusiasm with which Irish Catholics, and indeed many American Catholics, embrace American conservatives. I am all for brotherly…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that nobody understands a woman better than another one. That’s why it’s a relief that the Jane Austen-themed Mr Malcolm’s List (PG) is both directed by a woman (Emma Holly Jones) and scripted by one – Suzanne Allain from her own (self-published) novel. Partly filmed in Ireland, it comes…
It used to be very annoying when you missed a programme you wanted to see or hear, especially if it was your own fault. Nowadays you can watch back or listen back via the various catchup services. And so The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio One, Friday) made a surprise and low-key return in August.…
The recent attack on Salman Rushdie, like the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in 2015, raises fundamental questions about the limits of free speech. There are no easy answers. Those of us who live in liberal democracies are predictably appalled by the very idea of restrictions, formal or otherwise, on our freedom of speech.…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone