The Brigidine Sisters in Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand, 1807 – 1922 by Ann Power (Four Courts Press, €60.00) In this comprehensive study Dr Ann Power discusses all aspects of the lives and ministry of the Brigidine nuns and in doing so tells us a great deal about the making of modern Ireland. Bishop Daniel…
Cad Fúinne, Mar Sin?/ What of us, then? by Colm Ó Tórna (Foilsithe ag Teangscéal/ Áisínteacht Dáilúcháin Leabhar, €10.00/€13.50 post paid; from An Siopa Leabhar, 6 Sráid Fhearchair, Dublin 2; email: siopa@cnag.ie) At the outset the author provides a depressing, albeit accurate, description of the prevailing culture. He states that its true nature was revealed in…
A Doctor’s War by Aidan MacCarthy (Gill Books ex Collins Press, €11.19) This is a fascinating war memoir by a remarkable survivor, who attributed his safe-keeping to divine intervention. Aidan MacCarthy was born in Castletownbeare, Co. Cork in 1914. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, which for his English readers he describes as “the Eton…
Dom Eugene Boylan: Trappist Monk, Scientist & Writer by Thomas J. Morrissey SJn (Messenger Publications, €19.95) This is an important biography of Dom Eugene Boylan, the well-known abbot of Mount St Joseph, the Cistercian Abbey at Roscrea. He was the author of two once widely read books, This Tremendous Lover and Difficulties in Mental Prayer, which…
The Great Famine in Kinsale by Catherine Flanagan (Four Courts Press, €9.95) Catherine Flanagan gives us an account of the Great Famine in Kinsale and its hinterland. At the outset she describes the social and economic conditions in the area before the famine. The lower classes – cottiers and labourers – made up 80% of the…
Walking Backwards to Heaven? Hope and the Catholics of Cloyne Diocese, 1700 – 1830 by Martin Millerick (Diocese of Cloyne, €10.00 + 3.40 Postage Eire, €5.70 UK; Cathedral Bookshop, Cobh, Cloyne Diocesan Office & bookshops) Martin Millerick’s new book is a scholarly history of the Catholic diocese of Cloyne in the 17th and 18th Centuries.…
Under the Bed by Robert Pierse (A Little Platoon, €15.00; copies from bookshops, or jm.murphy@outlook.ie / 087 1844378, for €20 inc. post and packaging) This is a collection of interesting stories, drawn from the lawyer author’s experience of many different places and people, many, however, close to home on the Munster Circuit by a solicitor…
Picking up the Shards by Donal Murray (Veritas, €12.99 / £11.52) The author begins with a story about Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago. Before he died, in a conversation with some of his priests he said: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr…
Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution by Caoimín De Barra (Currach Press, €14.99) This is an interesting polemic which argues that Irish should and could be restored as the generally spoken language of most people in the Republic of Ireland. In the introduction the author acknowledges that most people have already made up their minds on this…
The First Rose of Tralee A novel by Patricia O’Reilly (Poolbeg, €15.99) The fact file on ‘The Rose of Tralee’ claims that the words of the song were composed by Edmund Mordaunt Spencer, the music by Charles William Glover. However local tradition claims that it was written by William Pembroke Mulchinock, a wealthy Protestant, who…