A friendly spirit is a constant in a congress of contradictions, writes Fr Bernard Healy On arrival at Mactan-Cebu Airport, the Irish Pilgrimage to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress was greeted with a warm Filipino welcome as Congress volunteers placed decorative necklaces around the necks of the pilgrims and shepherded us through customs. That welcome…
Level of homelessness in Ireland is “out of control” Ireland’s “out of control” homelessness crisis makes commemorations around the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising seem hollow, according to leading campaigner Fr Peter McVerry SJ. Speaking as it was revealed that there are now more than 5,000 homeless people in Ireland, Fr McVerry told The…
With over 5,000 people homeless in Ireland, Greg Daly talks to leading campaigners about the national crisis “It’s very saddening, and a stark reality, that homeless accommodation is still with us 100 years after the establishment of our State,” President Michael D. Higgins said last September when marking the centenary of the Back Lane Hostel…
Mags Gargan talks to a founding member of the Anam Cara parental and sibling bereavement support organisation The loss of a child is every parent’s worst nightmare. The pain goes deep and the grief can be overwhelming. Family and friends are a wonderful source of support, but sometimes only someone who has been through the…
I was rather lukewarm about RTÉ’s new series Rebellion after the first episode, but hoped it would improve. After two more episodes I’m disappointed. Yes, it’s interesting and holds the attention but I often find myself getting annoyed with it, whether for the stilted dialogue, the sluggish pace or the gratuitous sex and crude language that rules…
John Henry Newman: A Portrait in Letters edited by Roderick Strange (Oxford University Press, £30.00) Over the centuries biography has changed. When James Boswell published in 1791 his landmark life of Dr Samuel Johnson, he revealed that he had adapted the new method of Rev. William Mason in his life of Gray, in allowing the…
Cometh the man, cometh the moment. Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar for his touching portrayal of Johnny Depp’s mentally-handicapped brother in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993 I’ve been wondering when the erstwhile Boy Wonder of cinema would slough off that bothersome tag. He’s threatened to do so in a raft…
So the ‘silly season’ is well and truly over and many readers will have settled into their New Year resolutions by now. December is a notoriously difficult month for keeping healthy eating regimes on track and an even more precarious period for alcohol intake. Between work parties and meeting up with old friends, not to…
We are deep in winter now. Yet there is something brightening the grey. The New Year still shines fresh and full of possibility. The Earth is, by welcome degrees, tipping us back towards the sun – an astronomical fact quietly celebrated by the crocuses and snowdrops that emerge from the frosty ground. It is wonderfully…
One in three Irish people have a parent, brother or sister with heart disease, which remains the single biggest cause of death in the Western world. Despite this, great strides have been made in its prevention and treatment in the last two decades that has hugely improved outcomes and reduced mortality. This is in large…
Greg Daly
Mags Gargan
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Cathal Barry