An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith (Gill Books, €19.99 / £12.50) Tom Crean was a hero of the legendary Polar expeditions of the early decades of the twentieth century. The explorer faced nature in all its raw energy in a way later travellers never did. Crean was born on a…
In Reasonable Hope: Philosophical Reflections on Ultimate Meaning by Patrick Masterson (Catholic University of America Press, $34.95pb/ £22.99; if required a case bound edition is available at £99.00) In this study Patrick Masterson poses the question: ‘What does it all ultimately mean?’ In effect he is asking what is the purpose of our lives? The response…
The Irish to the Rescue: The Tercentenary of the Polish Princess Clementina’s Escape by Richard K. Maher (Peter Lang, Oxford, €39.95) This is a collection of papers presented to a seminar to commemorate the rescue and escape of the Polish princess, Maria Clementina Sobieska from Innsbruck in August 1719. Maria Clementina was born on July 18,…
Saints, Scholars, Heroes by Fr Éamon Flanagan CM (Kolbe Publications; ISBN: 9-780952-962724; €7.00+postage) This is a collection of poems about people, places and events and much more besides. They are written from a Christian and communitarian perspective, are immensely personal and are imbued with a Catholic sensibility. Fr Éamon Flanagan celebrates in verse Fr Eamon O’Hara…
Rhyming History: The Irish War of Independence and the Ballads of Atrocity in the Valley of Knockanure by Gabriel Fitzmaurice (North Kerry Literary Trust , €15.00; can be ordered from the Kerry Writers’ Museum, info@kerrywritersmuseum.com, 24 The Square, Listowel, Co. Kerry V31 RD93) G.K. Chesterton once famously rhymed: “The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that…
The National Anthems of the EU Countries by Liam Murphy (Kingdom books, €18.00) Though World War II was an Armageddon of evil, it had at least one good result: what became the European Union (EU) emerged from its embers. This historic union was formed by European statesmen who were determined that their countries would never again…
The Mountbattens by Andrew Lownie (Blink Publishing, £20.00; 490 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates) Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated by members of the Provisional IRA at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, on August 27, 1979. This is recorded in considerable detail in one of the 29 chapters of this comprehensive biography. Dickie, as he was known from…
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis (First published in 1946 by Geoffrey Bless; available in many editions new and second-hand) C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) was described as one of the intellectual giants of the 20th Century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his time. This slim volume – a literary outcome of the…
A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi with Santha Rama Rau (Rupa & C, New Delhi, 2008; copies of other editions are available second-hand online from €10.00 approximately) These extraordinary memoirs of an eminent Indian princess, who achieved great electoral success in later life, present a fascinating account of India…
Lord of the World, a novel by Robert Hugh Benson (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, $15.95/£10.99) In January 2015 during an in-flight interview from Manila to Rome, Pope Francis referred to the ‘ideological colonisation’ of international family-planning agencies and national governments that impose population control as a condition of development aid. The reporter asked what he…