David Burke’s Deception and Lies: the hidden History of the Arms Crisis 1970 is probably one of the worst books written about the seismic events that took place fifty years ago around the alleged plot to import arms to defend northern Catholics, particularly in Belfast where loyalist and RUC attacks had led to the displacement […]
“Clontarf was too important to be left to the historians, so passed into the legend-maker’s hand.” Gwyn Jones, “A History of the Vikings” Written around 1280, “Njál’s Saga” is an Icelandic tale of vengeance and blood feuds among various groups of Vikings. It also includes a section on the Battle of Clontarf in Ireland and […]
Anyone who loves Dickens’ novels will always be curious to learn more about his life. They ponder: what lies behind the extraordinary universe that sprang from one man’s mind? Where did he find the sources of his inspiration? Indeed, what kind of man was he? A.N. Wilson does not disappoint. A writer who has published […]
Earlier this year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, travelled back to his home in Bavaria to visit his ailing older brother, shortly before the latter died. It was an onerous and poignant journey and he contacted shingles on his return. While intellectually alert, at 93 years of age, he is inevitably frail. Indeed, […]
One dreamed as a girl of being a teacher, playing the role so accurately she created field trip permission slips for her friends’ parents to sign. Another was a born performer, always thrust to the microphone by her friends. Still another had regular dinners with royalty, serving an elaborate feast created by mud. A brand-new […]
For a man who breathed his last at the young age of 46, Eric Arthur Blair — better known as George Orwell — had an almost unparalleled impact on the Anglosphere. The journalist, novelist, and diarist has been read by generations of schoolchildren, and his name is incessantly invoked by politicians from all sides of […]
Around the turn of the millennium, 1000 A.D., European civilization and all the rudiments of Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian knowledge and tradition were on the verge of being violently extinguished. Historian, Richard Erdoes, details how the common people of Europe fully believed their world was coming to an end. Small wars among feuding Christian barons were […]
The foundations of a 5,700-year-old Neolithic house, along with evidence of Bronze Age burials and Iron Age smelting have been discovered by archaeologists in Co Cork. Eight separate excavations were carried out after the county council undertook two road alignment projects on the N73, close to the villages of Shanballymore and Kildorrery. On one of the sites, archaeologists […]
Rugadh Ciarán i gContae Ros Comáin sa bhliain 516. Siúinéir agus déantóir carbaid ab ea a athair Uaireanta tugtar ‘Ciarán Óg’ air chun idirdhealú a dheánamh idir é féin agus Ciarán an Seanóir a bhí ina easpag ar Osraighe sa 5ú haois. Airítear é ar dhuine de ‘Dháréag Aspal na hÉireann’. Seo an bealach a […]
Directed by Christopher Nolan. Script by Christopher Nolan. Starring John David Washington; Robert Pattinson; Elizabeth Debicki; Dimple Kapadia; Michael Caine; Kenneth Branagh. Running time 150 minutes. Rotten Tomatoes 76%. You thought diving into the concept of layered dreams was hard to follow in Christopher Nolan’s Inception? Or perhaps it was the apparently plausible yet highly theoretical physics of Interstellar that cooked your bacon. Well, none of these […]
Call me old fashioned, but I preferred the old Dukes of Hazzard, which is what a clever executive would call whatever this show ends up being: Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, having resettled in California, on Wednesday unveiled new Hollywood careers. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have founded a yet-to-be-named production company and […]
Jessica Krug, is her name, and she’s spent basically her whole adult life pretending to be a black woman when, in fact, she was just, well, overly fond of the old sun-beds. Here’s her apology, which to be honest, is much more entertaining than the story itself: To an escalating degree over my adult life, […]