Rome may be full of enduring Christian relics, many of them well known and repeatedly visited by pilgrims, but the temporary exhibition currently on show in the crypt of the Venerable English College is a little publicized gem, well worth visiting if only for a reminder of the enduring and rich legacy of English Catholicism and the part played by Jesuits in its defense. But hurry, it send on May 11th, after a short run of less than a month.. Entitled ‘Memory, Martyrs, and Mission’, exhibits included a first …
Sweet Lemon Grove, Sicily
La Casa di Melo, where we stayed for two nights, was one of several highlights of our Sicilian holiday, along with our visits to Mount Etna, and The Godfather excursions to medieval mountain villages. It is a beautifully renovated family-owned farm house which year round welcomes guests as a bio-hotel, run with great charm by its current owners, a youthful married couple called Lorenzo and Chiara. The hotel retains a distinctive traditional air, with antique furniture from Chiara’s original family home, dispersed liberally along corridors and rooms, and a wine …
Homage to Iniesta
Few people will lament Andres Iniesta’s departure from FC Barcelona as much as Messi. In a book of personal tributes to Iniesta published last year, that of his Argentine colleague speaks volumes about how integral to Barca’s success the two have been, largely because of the unique personal understanding between them as individuals. Messi tells how he never feels more comfortable than when knowing Iniesta is playing alongside him, for the players both feel and live for their football, without letting politics intrude, instinctively playing to each other’s strength, …
Catalonia & Northern Ireland
Twenty years ago today I was among a large assembly of journalists from around the world who had gathered in the freezing cold of an Easter-tide Belfast to celebrate a magnificent political achievement. Today I simply reflect on that memory. In the days of fake news and intense and generally justified popular scepticism with the absence of sound political leadership, I have no hesitation in supporting Tony Blair in his assertion that the peace agreement for Northern Ireland was something that those involved in it should feel justifiably proud …
Mary Magdalene
This past Sunday the Catholic church I visited had its images covered in deep purple as is traditional at this time leading up to Easter, its altar monopolised by men. Coming in from the bustle of London on St Patrick’s weekend and finding shelter from the aggressive final snow storm of the Beast from the East, I was drawn into a controlled clerical space, then soothed by plain chant and incense and a measured silence with which I was encouraged to meditate on the mystery of Christ. Later in the …
A meeting with a Czech ‘friend’
I am glad I caught the BBC’s John Simpson’s fascinating recollection this morning of his avoidance of an attempted honey pot trap by the communist Czech intelligence service during the Cold War. It brought back memories of a somewhat more mundane encounter I had many years later , thankfully devoid of any attempted sexual subversion, and involving a very different, and genuinely friendly kind of spy of the same nationality. It took place during a weekend conference at Oxford’s St Antony’s College, attended by an assortment of academics, …
The Post, the FT, and turning 65
As birthday presents go, I couldn’t have asked for a more timely and worthwhile one than a visit to my favourite London cinema the Clapham Picture House, ‘en famille’ to watch The Post. At one level it was a trip down memory lane , to my rights of passage in journalism, reporting to newsroom bosses (always male) in rolled up sleeves, and feeling part of an enterprise that began immersed in typewriter clatter and reels of telex tape, messenger boys running to deliver urgent copy before proceeding to Linotype machines, …
The Catalan Conundrum
As someone who for personal and professional reasons includes regular visits to Catalonia as part of his year, it is with some relief that I have managed to experience the region over Christmas and into the New Year in relative peace, and among friends from a wide political spectrum. But then those of us familiar with the local scene have grown accustomed to valleys of relative calm prior to resurgent peaks of crisis, a veritable political helter-skelter which baffles most ordinary mortals struggling to catch up. Currently we are …
Messi & Catalonia
So eat your hat all you illuminated Catalan nationalists who thought Lionel Messi would be your standard bearer all the way to independence and beyond. FC Barcelona had tried its best to keep details on his thoughts on the matter from public scrutiny-but the truth is now out. As reported in the Spanish and Catalan media the Argentine’s latest contract with the club has a specific clause stating that player will be free to leave the club in the event of Catalan independence having Barca excluded from any major European …
Duelists in El Clasico
If there was an enduring image of today’s El Clasico it is that of Lionel Messi celebrating his penalty. He spreads out his legs, pumps his chest out and raises head and arms to the fans like Moses displaying the most important commandment. That the stadium, happened to be Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu and the fans in teir vast majority home-grown and visceral tribal opponents of FC Barcelona made the gesture defiant in itself. What made it cheeky was that it broke with Messi’s usually more modest grsture to his …
