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Hollow Be Thy Name

by Tom Reilly

202 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0778; ISBN 1-55395-066-6; US$20.00, C$23.95, EUR15.60, £11.50

This book is irreverent, blunt, stimulating and provocative with a blend of cynicism, unique wit and severe doses of blasphemy. The theory is advanced that, when it comes to God and religion, to question is the answer.

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about the book      about the author      Table of Contents and excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book The once dark shadowy corner of the author's heart is finally flickering to life. For years it was a place of spiritual turmoil and inconsistency concerning complex matters of faith. As an impressionable child Tom Reilly fell for the God story. As a free-spirited teenager he was a devoted Catholic. As a rationally minded adult he is a devout atheist. A life long inner search for a genuine God failed miserably. He is now embarrassed that he ever believed at all. He sees God as possibly the greatest sham ever. Only now does his world make any sense. Ireland is a country where, for years, religion did not unite - it divided. Having emerged virtually unscathed from centuries of oppression, today the Catholic Church, not just in Ireland but also worldwide, faces its greatest crisis ever. No longer under threat from the penal laws and such, these days the Church is persecuted by abuse scandals from forces within. Its long-term survival is no longer as inevitable as it once seemed. A born again skeptic, Reilly has already succeeded in challenging one of Ireland's sacred cows; Oliver Cromwell's war crimes, once the popular verdict of history. At a time when many of Ireland's Catholics are wondering if, to question might actually be the answer, the author's fall (jump) from grace is a challenge to believers everywhere.

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About the Author Tom Reilly was born in Drogheda, Ireland in 1960. He has published four history studies including the controversial and ground breaking Cromwell: An Honourable Enemy (Brandon Books 1999).

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Reviews of HOLLOW BE THY NAME

    God, organised religion and particularly the Roman Catholic church come under Reilly's often funny and always irreverent gaze, nor is he averse to almost original combinations of four-letter-word usage over chapters such as 'Father Ted & St Th&eacuaterèse of Lisieux'. Others such as 'Women and the Church' show an effective and often comic use of statistics. The cover with a tombstone inscribed 'God RIP' should be enough to warn off sensitive believers. His survey of religions is good fun contrasting the share each holds of the world's population. He threatens to become the founder of the Church of Common Cents in this entertaining look in God versus Atheism. The book is self-published using an 'on-demand' system of electronic printing. In Ireland people seem ashamed of resorting to such paper-saving technology; in Canada apparently they're rightly proud of it.

    Published in Books Ireland, December 2002

    the author writes well and gives a good description of an Irish upbringing suffocated in an oppressive version of Catholicism.

    Ireland On Sunday: Critics' Choice by Tom Mooney

    Any look entitled Hollow By Thy Name and boasting a cover image of a tombstone with the inscription "God RIP", is bound to attract the attention of a lost soul like the The Phantom. Then you turn to to acknowledgements and find this, "I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Satan without whose non-existence and expert spiritual guidance this book would never have been possible" And if that wasn't enough, you leaf through and find that, amongst other persuasive evidence, that the author supports the non-existence of God by reference to the success of Manchester United.

    Which isn't meant to trivialize Drogheda-born Tom Reilly's tome. Previously the author of an acclaimed book on Cromwell, his Hollow Be Thy Name is a serious, funny, passionate, provocative and, in the Irish context, long overdue defense of atheism. Watch out for the imminent HOTPRESS interview...

    HOTPRESS News

I TOLD GOD TO F*** OFF: Outspoken writer urges Catholics to turn their backs on Christianity
By Niall Moonan

    A NEW book billed as the most blasphemous ever published in Ireland goes on sale this week.
    Hollow Be Thy Name urges Catholics to dump God and religion, promising "the world will be a better place".
    Author Tom Reily also called God a b*****d and wrote: "I told God to F**k off, get out of my life and don't ever come back.
    "If I can encourage even one reader to find the strength to leave religion behind by reading this book then I feel that is a job well done."
    A priest hit back at Reilly's comments yesterday but said he was right to reject God if the God he was taught to worship was so threatening.
    Dublin-based cleric Fr. Marty Nolan added: "In the 20th century there were more than 100 million people killed by self-confessed atheists such as Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tung.
    "The God of Christians as preached by the Lord is a God whose only purpose for human beings is for life, joy, freedom, peace and union, intimacy and love."
    The book, published by Trafford, will go on sale around the country on Wednesday and is expected to cause outrage.
    In it Reilly, 42, argues that God and the afterlife are the greatest shams that were ever invented.
    And he said he hopes to see the Bible in the mythology section at the back of second-hand bookshops one day.
    He wrote: "It's about time we dumped our religious baggage and freed ourselves from outdated superstitions.
    "We can all lead full lives that are guilt-free, without fake promises or frightening threats in the fictitious afterlife."
    Reilly, who was raised a devout Catholic, described his falling out with the Church.
    He said: "Many people would reject God if they had half a mind but they are petrified of the consequences. It doesn't have to be like this.
    I happen to have been a Catholic by birthright rather than design, and I have used this experience to question God.
    Now I am embarassed I ever believed."
    The hard-hitting book asks God why He allowed millions to be killed by earthquakes, hurricanes, and drought.
    Reilly added: "Where was God on September 11, 2001? Then there are those crazy b*****ds like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein and the latest nasty piece of work, Osama bin Laden, all of whom have inflicted various terrible atrocities on thousands of innocent people.
    If He was a merciful God, why did he create these idiots?"
    Reilly blamed organised religion for justifying war, sexism, murder, castration, slavery, homophobia, mutilation, and intolerance.
    And he accused God of misleading him for years, adding: "It's amazing how a ficitional character like Him can have so much influence in the world.
    "Apparently Jesus said 'some would fall by the wayside'. I now live permanently on the wayside.
    And I have discovered it's not really such a bad place."
    But Fr. Nolan said the Church has no logical response to evil because God created people with free will.
    And although there was no proof of an afterlife, for people with faith there were "glimpses".
    He said: "We see it in the smile of a baby, in the sigh of a lover, in the beauty of an aging mother."
    Reilly has been at the center of a bitter row since his first book on Oliver Cromwell suggested the hated leader was an "honourable enemy."
    Frank Godfrey, a councillor in Reilly's hometown of Drogheda, Co Louth, condemned the book, saying Cromwell massacred thousands of townspeople.
    He even challenged Reilly to an open-air duel on horseback.

Published in The Irish Mirror, Monday, October 21, 2002