Looking at a BBC Proms TV transmission recently I was reminded of this year being the sesquicentennial anniversary of the birth of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (VW) on October 12, 1872. The broadcast included one of VW’s best-loved works – Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis – expressively played by the Sinfonia of…
In the worst of pandemic times many people got comfortable with online Masses and for sure they were a brilliant opportunity to engage, but some got to like it so much that they didn’t return to in-person Masses when they could, finding it more meaningful at home. But that deprives them of community and the…
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent’s Tail, £14.99) Booth, by the American author Karen Joy Fowler, is a novel about the family of actor Junius Brutus Booth. The most famous – or infamous – of his children was John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Booth père (1796-1852) was an Englishman who abandoned a wife and…
Fr Niall Coll The Synodal Pathway: When Rhetoric Meets Reality, edited by Eamon Conway, Eugene Duffy and Mary McDaid (Columba Books, €16.99/£14.99) St John Henry Newman famously observed that “there has seldom been a Council without great confusion after it”. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was no exception. Hence the often fractious discourse between traditionalists and…
Climb with Charlie, by Charlie Bird (Merrion Press, €17.99/£16.99) In 2021, veteran RTÉ journalist Charlie Bird made it known that he has motor neurone disease. He was charged up to make a positive response. He decided to organise a charity climb of Ireland’s famous Holy Mountain, Croagh Patrick. In its fulfilment, his simple plan grew…
34th International Hopkins Festival July 22-28 2022 Newbridge College Theatre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Summer School, which has been called “a bright gem in the literary world”, by Patrick Samway SJ, the American literary scholar and teacher, begins tomorrow (Friday July 22), and closes next week on 28. The details of all…
Of all the social justice issues that need attention human trafficking must surely be one of the most urgent. The issue was brought to the fore last week when athlete Mo Farah revealed that he had been trafficked into Britain at a young age. On Drivetime (RTÉ Radio One, Tuesday) presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra interviewed…
Like most road movies, Joyride (PG) involves a journey of the mind as well as the body. Olivia Colman plays the most unlikely barrister you’re ever going to see in a film. Charlie Reid is the most unlikely gynaecologist in training. Because he’s only twelve. As well as knowing more than Colman (who’s just given…
Discover God Daily: Seven Life-Changing moments from the Journey of Saint Ignatius, by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) Pedro Arrupe: a heart larger than the World, by Brian Grogan SJ (Messenger Publications, €16.95/£18.95) Anyone who wishes to understand the feelings and thoughts that inform and motivate Pope Francis’s approach to the…
Anthony Gaughan A Poet in the House: Patrick Kavanagh at Priory Grove, by Elizabeth O’Toole (Lilliput Press, €15.00/£13.00) Elizabeth O’Toole’s memoir is a fascinating snapshot of Patrick Kavanagh in his later years, in very different circumstances than people often imagined him in. Kavanagh was born near Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, on October 23 1904. After attending the…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone