Courtney McGrailDear Editor, In relation to Fr Oliver Rafferty’s concerns about the content of the theology courses in St Patrick’s College (‘Maynooth rejects claim it pays ‘lip service’ to theology’ IC 03/12/2015). Msgr Hugh Connolly should not be placed in the position where he feels compelled to defend the college of which he is president. My…
Month: December 2015
The Rising’s Capuchins… in their own words
“There was no joking, not even the semblance of it. Poor Colbert was far too beautiful and too reverent a character to joke with anyone in such a solemn hour. I know very well where his heart was then. It was very near to God and to the friends he loved. “What really happened was…
Christmas boom times are back
Dear Editor, It was interesting to read your front page story last week (‘Families need secure homes this Christmas – Archbishop’) in which Archbishop Eamon Martin called on the Government to do more to help indebted families who are dreading the financial pressures of Christmas. There seems to be a Celtic Tiger sense of giddiness…
The reawakening of a nation
The bare bones of the 1916 story can be simply told. Unionist opposition to the introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912 led to the signing of the Ulster Covenant by almost half a million unionists and the January 1913 formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), willing, if necessary, to take up…
Ireland’s military neutrality is a policy, and not an orientation
Dear Editor, Martin Mansergh (The View, IC 03/12/2015) states how “our military neutrality is a policy”. As such, it primarily concerns our interests. Yet our ideals or values arise as well. Bunreacht na hÉireann (Art. 29) mentions the “pacific (ie non-belligerent) settlement of international disputes”. Hence a constitutional endorsement of the “ideal of peace”. Historically,…
‘On an equality with men…’
Greg DalyThough often overlooked, women played a key role in the Rising, writes Greg Daly
In the name of God…
Greg Daly explores the extent to which the Rising was a Catholic rebellion
The dead generations
The funeral of O’Donovan Rossa was part of a long tradition of nationalist funerals, Greg Daly learns
The last surviving child of a 1916 leader
Mags GarganMags Gargan looks at the life of Fr Joseph Mallin SJ
Just War: No
Fr Séamus Murphy SJ The Easter Rising passes none of the ‘just war’ criteria, it had a pagan love of war and blood-sacrifice, and it attacked important political common goods. In this article, I focus only on the major criteria. First: Non-combatants must neither be targeted nor knowingly endangered. On the first day of the…