Returning Light: 30 Years of Life on Skellig Michael by Robert L. Harris (Harper Collins Ireland, €13.99 / £14.99) This is a tale about a remarkable location, a remarkable monastery and a remarkable person. The remarkable location consists of two huge pinnacles of rock reaching skywards from the sea-bed of the North Atlantic 11 and…
On Dangerous Ground: A Memoir of the Irish Revolution by Máire Comerford Hilary Dully (The Lilliput Press, Dublin, €20.00) This is a fascinating diary written by a republican ‘true believer’. From 1916 until her death in 1982, Máire Comerford was totally committed to the struggle for independence as understood by many of those elected to…
Prison Journal: vol. 2 The State Court Rejects the Appeal by George Pell (Ignatius Press, £14.50 / $19.95) The context in which this journal (one of three) was written is a sobering morality tale. Cardinal George Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, on June 8, 1941. He was educated at the Loreto convent school…
A Man of his Times: The Papers of Robert FitzGerald, 17th Knight of Kerry by Adrian FitzGerald (Kingdom Books) This is a valuable collection of the correspondence of Robert FitzGerald (1716-1781), knight of Kerry. The knights of Kerry belong to an early branch of the mighty Geraldines. There is uncertainty as to exactly how or…
Father William Doyle, A Year’s Thoughts edited by Alfred O’Rahilly (Te Deum Press, $US16.95 /€19.95) This is a useful collection of prayerful reflections from the pen of Fr William Doyle, a spiritual leader who touched many souls during his career as a retreat-giver and for a long time after. A Jesuit priest and military chaplain, he…
PEN International: An Illustrated History edited by Charles Toner and others (Thames & Hudson, £45.00/€54.00) PEN International celebrated its centenary in London on October 5, 2021. As part of the celebrations the President, Jennifer Clement, and others published this absorbing history of PEN and its activities over those ten decades, edited by Charles Toner. Founded in…
St Chinian University Comes of Age, by Paddy Masterson (Pegasus Press/Elliot Mackenzie Publishers, £10.99) Patrick Masterson served as president of University College Dublin from 1986 to 1993 and was president of the European University Institute in Florence from 1994 to 2002. His novels are the fruit of his first-hand and practical experience of how insignificant, first-world…
Faith and Fury: The Evangelical Campaign in Dingle and West Kerry 1825-45 by Bryan MacMahon (Wordwell, €20.00/£18.99) In these ecumenical times it is difficult to make sense of the distrust and hostility which existed between Catholics and Protestants in west Kerry between 1825 and 1845. Locally these years became known as the period of the second…
Peter J. Drumm, First Professor of Biochemistry at University College Cork by Ned Barrett (Clogher Historical Society, €15.00; Clogher Historical Society, St Macartan’s College, Mullaghmurphy, Monaghan; ; info@clogherhistory.ie) Peter J. Drumm was born in Drumod, Co. Monaghan, on October 24, 1898. He attended Derrygooney National School and was a boarder at St Macartan’s College in Monaghan Town from…
The First Irish Cities: an Eighteenth-Century Transformation by David Dickson (Yale University Press, £25.00/€32.00) In this study Prof. Dickson selects ten Irish cities and towns, subjects them to a forensic historical analysis and illustrates in meticulous detail their evolution throughout the 18th Century. The urban centres he selects are: Belfast, Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny,…