People often complain these days about a coarsening of public debate, but it’s not just happening on social media. I’ve noticed a tendency for bad language to become more common in mainstream media, both from interviewees and even worse from presenters. The practice has long been common in film and TV drama and if you…
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, ‘He’s about as funny as cancer.’ It’s used to describe dour individuals. The unique thing about the cancer film Sunny Dancer (15) is that it is indeed funny. The characters in it, all teenage sufferers from the disease, gather together at a Scottish summer camp where they interact in…
Passage to America: the story of Ulster’s emigrants Taking ship: Essays in transatlantic migration from Ulster, edited by Sophie Cooper, Patrick Fitzgerald and William Roulston (Ulster Historical Foundation, £11.99 / €13.99) Felix M. Larkin *** An Post has recently marked the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence with a stamp featuring a portrait…
Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore by the terrible things that go on in the world, you get a double whammy. First off, on the News at One (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) I heard about the awful stabbing of a woman in a church in Tramore, during the Rosary and just before…
Some books are remembered as much for their epigrams as themselves. One thinks of L.P. Hartley’s The Past Is Another Country; Tolstoy’s Happy families are all alike. I’d wager that what most people will remember from Andy Serkis’ Animal Farm (PG), as they probably did from the George Orwell book on which it’s based, is…
Temple of God: An Unbroken Vision of the Virgin Mary, by Theo Andreou (Gracewing, £15.99 / €18.99) It can be hard for the rising generation to imagine just how cut off the Ireland of their grandparents and great-grandparents was from the worldwide expressions of Christianity. That all changed, thankfully, with the Second Vatican Council. The…
Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict: Historical Perspectives from Ireland and Europe, ed. by Richard C. Allen, Felix M. Larkin, Oliver O’Hanlon and Aoife Whelan; Studies in Franco-Irish Relations, volume 26 (Peter Lang AG, £40.00 / €49. 40) This is a collection of essays about a most important subject; the freedom of…
Remembering Peasants: a Personal History of a Vanished World, by Patrick Joyce (Penguin £25.00 / €29.99; also available in paperback) Often in writing reviews a relevant passage in the Gospels will come to mind. This time from John 4:38 (in the familiar words of the Douay-Rheims version), where Jesus tells the disciples: “I have sent you…
I turned on the radio last Friday morning and heard Ryan Tubridy speaking – what was this, a time warp? It’s a long time since he’s had a morning radio show. But no, I was indeed in the present moment – he was a guest on Times Radio Breakfast, and what he was saying was…
I recently alluded to the fact that the ratings films receive are often misleading regarding advisory content for parents. The battle against censorship has long been won, which means that substandard films with strong sexual and/or violent content have come through the system as prolifically as artistic ones. We can’t prevent this. If you pass…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello