Miniature Masterpieces: Cultural identity, artistic expression and a century of Irish stamps, by Stephen Ferguson (National Print Museum, €12.00; also available from the GPO Archives & Museum) The first Irish stamps of the Free State were standard British stamps, adorned with King George’s head, over-printed for Irish use temporarily in the new domain. But soon…
Michael Healy 1873-1941: A Túr Gloine’s Stained Glass Pioneer, by David Caron (Four Courts Press, €55.00 / £50.00) Back in October 1906, Robert Elliot in his pioneering book Art and Ireland lamented that so many churches in Ireland seemed to prefer to fill the windows of their churches with stained glass imported ready made from…
Bro. Luke McNamara OSB On the eve of the Epiphany in brilliant sunshine that seemed to promise better days are coming, a large group of volunteers, in a quarter of an acre plot in a field just South East of the Front Gate, planted 2,500 native Irish trees. The density of planting follows the Akire…
The famous Irish author had a different type of religion, writes Aubrey Malone John McGahern had well documented problems with the Church, and with his faith, but he always struck me as having a holy sense about him, even a monastic one. It was in his simple bearing, his self-effacing nature, in the frugality of…
A trend on social media among Catholics in the US with Irish heritage, which was criticised by some online users who took issue with them describing themselves as Irish, has been defended by EPIC (The Irish Emigration Museum). The TikTok trend involved people uploading videos of themselves starting sentences by saying ‘We’re Irish Catholics’ and…
Irish men and women were among the top 10 visitors to the famous Camino de Santiago in 2023, as the Spanish pilgrimage saw record breaking visitor figures. Nearly half a million people from around the world hiked this historic route last year, according to statistics from the pilgrims’ office. Nearly 200,000 of the pilgrims were…
Missionary support to developing communities is very important, Sr Josephine McCarthy tells Ruadhán Jones Whether it be in health, education or sustainable farming, the support offered by missionaries is fundamentally important to developing communities, says Sr Josephine McCarthy PBVM “Missionaries are extremely well placed to know what’s needed on the ground because they’re there among…
Lourdes: 160 years of healing Greg Daly looks at the first ever Irish national pilgrimage to Lourdes September 1913 may to most Irish people be a date forever linked with the Dublin lock-out and Yeats’s poem about Dublin Corporation’s failure to provide a home for the Hugh Lane paintings, but it was also the…
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Chai Brady
Ruadhán Jones
Greg Daly