Bishop Kevin Doran has welcomed two votes at Fianna Fáil’s Ard Fheis in support of Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn, saying that they have sent an important message about the right to speak of the right to life. Party members voted by three to one to back a motion urging the party “to oppose…
National Evangelisation Teams (NET) Ministries Ireland will supply the highest number of missionaries ever to work in local parishes and schools around Ireland. The 40 young people were all commissioned by Bishop Alan McGuckian. Nine are from Ireland, 15 are from America, 11 from Canada, four from the UK and one is from Australia. Conor…
Participating in a feminist conversation in Northern Ireland last weekend (held at the stunning Mount Stewart stately home in Newtownards), I listened to a distinguished Oxford historian express her hopes that the coming Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment “would give feminism a unified focus”. I very much hope that the abortion referendum will not…
Catholic addiction counsellors and organisations are warning that unregulated online gambling is causing children to become problem gamblers in later life, in a phenomenon that could escalate. Young people of any age can access gambling websites with the tick of a box that ‘proves’ they’re 18. Games can be played online for free but players…
Greg Daly & Mags Gargan Members of two of Ireland’s best-known monastic communities followed in their forerunners’ footsteps on Monday night when Storm Ophelia left the monks without electricity and praying by candlelight. “We were lucky, really,” Roscrea Abbey’s Bro. Malachy Thompson told The Irish Catholic, explaining that the Offaly Cistercian community had been on…
RTÉ are currently looking for people to take part in a Christmas themed programme that asks ‘what does Christmas mean to you?’ People are invited to express what brings the meaning and wonder to Christmas for them whether it’s presents, food or family. “Or is it about giving rather than receiving, and celebrating the coming of…
Concerns have been raised after it emerged the Church of Ireland (CoI) is a shareholder in the holding company behind NAMA, with a priest saying he would hate to think that the Church would profit from peoples’ misfortune. In an answer to a parliamentary question Finance Minister Pascal Donohue revealed that the Representative Church Body…
Forgiveness Remembers: A Journey into the heart of God by Paul Farren & Robert Miller, forewords by Bishop Richard Chartres and the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor (Instant Apostle, £6.99) This is a small book with a big – and important – message. Paul Farren is Administrator of St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, and his friend…
The Death of Stalin (15A) This hilarious black comedy puts one in mind of the Irving Berlin apothegm, “The world would not be in such a snarl/Had Marx been born Groucho instead of Karl”. The cast become cartoon figures as the politburo is transformed into a comedy of (t)errors. With the exception of Dr Strangelove, where Peter Bull was…
Ken Burns has a name for excellent historical documentaries and his current series The Vietnam War (RTÉ and BBC Four, Monday nights) is top notch. There’s a wealth of archive footage, much of it quite harrowing, along with interviews with those involved – ex-soldiers, bereaved parents, and Vietnamese civilians, all from both sides of the…
Greg Daly
Mary Kenny
Chai Brady
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan