Joy is an infallible indication of God’s presence, just as the cross is an infallible indication of Christian discipleship. What a paradox! And Jesus is to blame. When we look at the Gospels we see that Jesus shocked his contemporaries in seemingly opposite ways. On the one hand, they saw in him a capacity to…
‘Blockbuster’ is the word that springs to mind as one surveys the raft of films being rolled out in the so-called ‘silly’ season to pique the interest of younger viewers enjoying a break from school. We recently saw films like Wonder Woman and Transformers: The Last Knight making their pitch for this lucrative target audience.…
Films from the 1960s tend to look very dated – what with garish colours and embarassing haircuts – but I find the film Man For All Seasons (RTÉ One, Saturday) still held up well. Paul Schofield, whose work was more on stage than on film, turns in an Oscar-winning performance as St Thomas More, in…
Felix M. Larkin The Fourth Estate: Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland By Mark O’Brien (Manchester University , £80) This book is about “the conditions under which journalism was practised” in Ireland in the 20th Century, with a focus on “how centres of power related to journalists” – to quote the author, Mark O’Brien, lecturer in journalism history…
The Hopkins Festival will be opened tomorrow by the British Ambassador, H.E. Robin Barnett in Newbridge College Theatre, Co. Kildare (at 7.30pm). Directed by poet Desmond Egan, who founded it 30 years ago, it celebrates the life and work of the Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins, now recognised as one of the great literary figures…
Independents in Irish Party Democracy by Liam Weeks (Manchester University Press, £80) Michael O’Leary once dismissed them as “local lunatics”, but UCC political scientist Liam Weeks takes a more favourable view of our independent TDs, in a thorough and well-informed book. He begins in Kerry on count night in February 2016 when independents and brothers Michael…
Writing recently about the Dublin connections of the romance of Tristan and Isolde I had no room to mention that one of the paintings decorating the frieze of the foyer of the City Hall is of Tristan asking for the hand of Isolde (who stands nearby) on behalf of King Mark of Cornwall. Also standing…
What do the Sistine Chapel, a used car with 186,000 miles on the odometer and a statue of Our Lady of Lujan made out of metal from an abandoned factory have in common? Besides being found in the Vatican Museums’ collections, the 1984 Renault, the Renaissance frescoes and the recycled scrap all help showcase Pope…
Tamil Catholic youth pose before performing a Bharatnatyam dance depicting the heavenly angels during the Feast of Our Lady of Madhu as part of a pilgrimage in Ontario, Canada at the weekend. Sri Lankan Catholics have venerated the Mother of God under the title Our Lady of Madhu for more than 400 years. Photo: PA
Young people from St Patrick’s College in Dungiven, Co. Derry took part in a Fatima Procession in St Patrick’s Church in the town, reciting the Rosary during the procession whilst other students carried a statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello