We cannot be silent about aborting babies with disabilities, writes David Quinn The issue of Down syndrome has featured fairly prominently in the abortion debate so far and is likely to feature more prominently in the weeks to come. The reason is simple; huge numbers of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS) are aborted.…
Hopeful Hopkins, essays by Desmond Egan (The Goldsmith Press, €20.00) Noel Barber SJ In these essays, Desmond Egan sets himself a clear goal: to correct the image of Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins as a “sick and self-lacerating person” and to present “the energetic, witty and hope filled” person that existed alongside the “physically frail, hypersensitive, nervous…
Pope Francis emphasised that remembering the Holocaust helps us overcome “so many deplorable forms of apathy towards our neighbour” in a speech at a conference in Rome. Addressing participants of the Rome International Conference on Responsibility of States Institutions and Individuals in the Fight against Anti-Semitism in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe…
The Poet’s Chair: Writings from the Ireland Chair of Poetry (UCD Press, €20.00 each volume) The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was established in 1998 jointly by Queen’s University Belfast, TCD, UCD, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and An Chomhairle Ealaíon. Every three years a distinguished poet is selected to hold the Chair as…
Pope Francis has recognised the martyrdom of a bishop, seven trappist monks and 11 other religious men and women killed by extremists in Algeria in the 1990s. The 19 men and women died between 1993 and 1996, while Algeria was locked in a 10-year-long armed conflict between government forces and Islamist rebel groups; the conflict…
Every day in Ireland over 500,000 single use cups and 2.5 million bottles are disposed of through landfill and incineration. Eight million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean each year. The Waste Reduction bill, progressing through the Dáil, aims to ban plastic cutlery / plates and establish a deposit/refund scheme (DRS) for glass, plastic…
A US cardinal has called for prayers for the victims killed and injured in a pair of school shootings in Kentucky and Texas. After the second shooting in two days, Cardinal DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Christians experience the pain of the family and friends of the victims “as if…
There’s an oddity in the gospels that begs for an explanation: Jesus, it seems, doesn’t want people to know his true identity as the Christ, the Messiah. He keeps warning people not to reveal that he is the Messiah. Why? Some scholars refer to this as “the messianic secret”, suggesting that Jesus did not want…
American singer Joy Villa who made a clear pro-life statement at Sunday’s Grammy Awards ceremony in New York, when the 31-year old appeared in a customised white gown upon which she had hand-painted the image of a foetus radiating rainbow colours, accessorised with a small white bag bearing the message ‘Choose life.’
A Little Book of Ledwidge: A Selection of Poems and Letters of Francis Ledwidge compiled by John Quinn, with an assessment by Seamus Heaney (Veritas, €9.99) India to Ithaca by Paula Lahiff (€10.00; €12.50 including postage, contact paulalahiff@gmail.com) Santiago Sketches by David McLoghlin (Salmon Poetry, €12.00) In Ireland the role of the poet has been respected since prehistoric…
David Quinn
Peter Costello
Susan Gately
Fr Ronald Rolheiser