Courtney McGrailThe death has taken place of Fr Pat Prendergast, parish priest of Glenties in the Diocese of Raphoe. A native of Letterkenny, he was ordained in 1977 and served in a number of parishes in the diocese including Holy Cross College, Falcarragh; Milford, Ballyshannon, Front Town and Glenties.
Month: March 2017
It’s all so blindingly obvious
Fr Conor McDonough OP As Catholics we all surely felt our faith was disrespected last month when the comedian David Chambers (‘Blindboy Boatclub’) described the Eucharist as ‘haunted bread’ on The Late Late Show. The celebration of the Eucharist is the raison d’être of the priesthood, so as a newly-ordained priest I felt particularly keenly…
Social media as much a challenge as it is an aid
Greg Daly
The advantages of social media as a tool for evangelisation or – arguably – an environment in which evangelisation can take place are discussed on a regular basis nowadays, but the difficulties of maintaining a coherent, timely and appropriate social media presence aren’t always acknowledged. This was demonstrated all too sharply last weekend, when the…
Revolution wafting o’er the Atlantic
Felix M. Larkin Ireland’s Allies: America and the 1916 Rising edited by Miriam Nyhan Gray (UCD Press, €40.00) In August 1886, speaking at a gathering of Irish-Americans in Chicago, Michael Davitt said: “It is very easy to establish an Irish republic by patriotic speeches delivered three thousand miles away, but we could not do it…
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…
Citizens’ Assembly nears ‘Decision Day’
Paul Keenan
It’s all over bar the shouting, so the saying goes. As the Citizens’ Assembly moved last weekend from a session of presentations and questioning to a phase of internal debate towards a final ballot on recommendations to be put to the Oireachtas, it is a fairly safe bet that we have not heard the last…
The old Stormont order has changed, changed utterly
Nuala O’Loan
The votes have been counted and Northern Ireland is in something of a state of shock. Last week unionists had a 16-seat majority over nationalists in the Assembly. Now, just over a week later nationalism has a total of 39 seats to unionism’s 40 seats. However the DUP, by a majority of one, has more…
Celebrating local schools
Over the weekend the CPSMA (Catholic Primary Schools Management Association) held their annual conference in Dublin, which included a presentation by Minister Richard Bruton, Minister for Education and Skills to the winners of the CPSMA art competition ‘Celebrating Local Schools’: Rebecca Hynes, Vicki Zimeng Lin, Isabelle Maher, Tashuva Rafiq and Aisling Amponsah. Photo: John McElroy
Persecuted Christians have grounds for hope
This is both a hopeful time and a grim one for those concerned about the persecution of Christians and freedom of conscience, according to an Iranian convert to Catholicism. Speaking in Dublin’s Newman University Church, Wall Street Journal editorial writer Sohrab Ahmari said there are grounds for hope, “because the question of the persecution of…
Dublin welcomes new Catholics
Last Sunday saw Dublin’s pro cathedral host the annual Rite of Election and Enrolement for 50 new members of the Catholic Church in the archdiocese. In the presence of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, 43 catechumens (awaiting baptism) and seven candidates (baptised) attended the ceremony to welcome them to the Church, culminating in each one signing the…