BRENDAN O’DONOGHUE, former secretary general of the Department of Environment and Local Government, has written a magnificent assessment of the career of one of his predecessors during the period before independence. 

Stephen Sandford Irish Academic Press, €24.95 

A well-known traditional singer who claimed that the cover of a book written by historian Diarmuid Ferriter had depicted him as an alcoholic has settled his claim for damages.

John M Regan

Fitzgerald Park on Cork’s Mardyke is once again open fully to the public in all its floral and artistic glory, flanked by Diarmuid Gavin’s controversial Sky Garden and the restored Fr Mathew Fountain.

Thomas Hennessey’s book on the Republican hunger strikes in Northern Ireland sides too often with the British establishment, writes JP O’Malley.

A Different Story: The Writings of Colm Tóibín

DR Éimear O’Connor has made a remarkable contribution to Irish art history. She has curated two major exhibitions of the work of 20th century artist, Seán Keating, and has written several books on him, of which the most recent is Seán Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation.

Fianna Fáil, Partition and Northern Ireland, 1926-1971

A traditional singer is suing historian Diarmuid Ferriter, claiming the cover of the academic’s book on the pioneers depicts the singer as an alcoholic.

I WOULD like to put on record that the pseudonym “Noah Kitterick” employed by the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse refers to Peter Tyrrell.

THE controversial revisionist historian Dr Peter Hart is to speak on political violence at the Irish Historical Society in UCC on Tuesday next. One of the events in Irish history on which Dr Hart made his reputation is the Kilmichael ambush of November 1920.