Signs of the Time: Seven Paths of Hope for a Troubled World, by Jean Vanier, translated by Ann Shearer (Darton, Longman & Todd, €10.99 / £8.99)

Caring for the Nation: A History of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, by Sr Eugene Nolan (Gill & Macmillan, €29.99 / £26.99)

The Price of Power: Inside Ireland’s Crisis Coalition, by Pat Leahy (Penguin Ireland, €17.99 / £14.99; ebook €9.99)

This book would be important even if it were only the collection of a parish priest’s letters – a thing never before attempted, though we have the letters of higher clergy such as Cardinal Cullen in print. But because these are the letters of an interesting literary figure whose representations of the Ireland of his…

Joe Carroll It is 40 years since Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC) so virtually two generations have little knowledge of the prolonged campaign from 1961 to 1973 to achieve membership. When asked to vote on the various referenda on widening and deepening the now European Union, very few realise what a struggle it was…

Peter Hegarty With the election triumph of Angela Merkel it is clear that German attitudes to the economic collapse and its aftermath will remain dominant. In his new book Faisal Islam explores the causes and effects of the Great Recession with the clarity and common sense we have come to expect from the highly-rated economics…

Efforts are underway to found a Belloc Society in Ireland. At the moment a small group are merely taking the initial baby steps, but they are serious about their scheme. Like the small Chesterton Society already in existence, both societies can be contacted in care of the Central Catholic Library at 74 Merrion Square, Dublin.…

Though the text is compact, the range of art over time which some five scholars have put together gives a revealing appreciation of what art has been since earliest times, enhanced by many fine and often unusual illustrations. As a basic text, it covers a great deal, though one has qualms that fully a quarter of…

It has been quite clear in recent years that some Catholics hold what would have once been considered heterodox beliefs about the Eucharist. This was, for many traditional minded people, demonstrated by Mary McAleese taking the sacrament in St Patrick’s Cathedral. It is significant then that this book is subtitled “an aid to Christian unity” — such…

J. Anthony Gaughan This is a remarkable book about a remarkable Kerryman. Dick Fitzgerald was born in Killarney on October 2, 1882. He was educated by the Presentation Brothers at their school in Killarney and their commercial college in Cork. Thereafter he was engaged in his parents’ export business. A keen footballer from his earliest years, for over…