Courtney McGrailA centennial pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, one of six blessed by Pope Francis, being carried along the Falls Road, Belfast on Sunday led by Sarah, Grace and Gerard dressed as the three children of Fatima, as part of a public procession from St Peter’s Cathedral to St Paul’s Belfast. Photo: Gerard Smyth
Month: March 2017
Tide has turned for Catholic library, board claims
Greg Daly
The financial situation of Dublin’s Central Catholic Library has improved dramatically since library members voted against a plan to place the library in the care of Dublin City University. The rejection of the plan last September was followed by the resignation of a third of the library’s board, who said the library had unsustainable annual…
Peace campaigner priest hopeful of Stormont agreement before deadline
Mags Gargan
A leading peace campaigner in the North has expressed optimism that the political parties will be able to agree a new power-sharing deal at Stormont before the upcoming deadline. Following the Assembly election on March 3, the law requires a fresh election after three weeks if there is no coalition formed. Fr Gary Donegan CP,…
Northern Ireland police crackdown on online abortion drug sales
The Police Service in Northern Ireland (PSNI) has moved to tackle the online sale of abortion drugs in the region. The PSNI confirmed that it had “carried out a number of searches in relation to illegal purchasing of prescription medications on the internet”. In relation to the raids, Detective Superintendent Bobby Singleton explained that offences…
Changing, but remembering our roots
Mary Kenny
What would Ireland be without St Patrick? asks Mary Kenny What would Ireland be without St Patrick? Before Christianity, the classical world knew almost nothing of Hibernia. According to Philip Freeman, visiting divinity scholar at Harvard, “the few references to Ireland in classical sources are largely complaints that the island was a land of savages…
Blowing his own trumpet
Senan Carty plays his trumpet accompanied by Ashley Gallagher, Eve Imogle and Shaha Ariff, all from St Brigid’s National School in Castleknock, Dublin during a break from rehearsals ahead of the ESB Feis Ceoil taking place from March 27-April 7. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
WMOF collection
The next national collection for next year’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin is due to be taken up in parishes across the country at Masses on the first weekend of April. The August 22-26 event is expected to attract thousands of Catholic families from around the globe to Ireland. Pope Francis has chosen Ireland…
Tuam sisters’ silence due to terms of commission
The religious sisters at the centre of controversy surrounding the Tuam Mother and Baby Home feel unable to comment on the issue due to legal constraints, The Irish Catholic understands. Recent revelations about the excavation of a general grave at St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home have been commented on both by Archbishop Michael Neary…
Nuncio Archbishop Brown to leave Dublin post
Michael KellyThe Pope’s representative in Ireland Archbishop Charles Brown is to leave to take up a new appointment in coming weeks. The move was confirmed by the Vatican this morning. Archbishop Brown – who is credited with bringing a more open style to the role and helping rebuild fragile relations between Ireland and the Holy See…
We must discover how and why those children died
David Quinn
Investigation of mother and baby homes should proceed apace, writes David Quinn It is very hard, three years after the story first broke, to write again about the Tuam mother and baby home and all the deaths that took place there in the years of its operation from 1925 to 1961. What else is left…