It is impossible to gain a proper understanding of Australian history without appreciating the prominent role played in it by the Irish-born Catholic prelate, Daniel Mannix (born in 1864), who was Catholic archbishop of Melbourne from 1917 until his death in 1963 at the grand age of 99. Dr Daniel Mannix, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne.…
Sometimes we appear to be living in a mixed-up world, especially in the way that people think about abortion. If I donate blood to the Red Cross, I can save the life of an unborn child. But if I offer to help a woman who may be having an abortion, I am accused of harassment. Msgr Philip Reilly, founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. If I counsel a pregnant woman to stop smoking because it could harm her unborn child, I will remain in good standing in society. But if I warn her that the abortion she is…
A visually spectacular science-fiction action film, Oblivion (rated M), is reviewed by Symeon Thompson, a member of the Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA). Oblivion is a beautiful and breathtaking sci-fi flick that asks the following questions: What makes a man? How ought he live? And how ought he die? It offers an unimpeachable answer. Joseph Kosinski follows-up his visually ambitious but narratively lacking Tron: Legacy (2010) with a clever work to irk the critics. In 2017, aliens destroy the moon, wreaking havoc on the Earth, as a prelude to an invasion. Humanity wins the war but at the cost…
BILL THE BASTARD: The Story of Australia’s Greatest War Horse by Roland Perry (Sydney: Allen and Unwin) Paperback: 288 pages ISBN: 9781743312629 RRP: $27.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Recently, the popular Steven Spielberg film War Horse, based on British author Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 children’s novel of the same name, has captured the public’s imagination. It tells the story of Joey, a horse purchased by the Army for service on the Western front during World War I. Australian historian and best-selling author Roland Perry, whose previous works include a biography of General Sir John Monash and the Australian…
