“But marshmallows are a St Patrick’s Day tradition!” my eldest daughter righteously insisted, aghast at my ignorance on the subject. “Don’t you remember, we all had giant marshmallows last year?” she asked in total incredulity. It was as though I had suddenly announced that I’d never heard that people bring little pine trees indoors and…
Mainly About Books by the Books Editor We are all aware of the major shrines of Ireland, and of the customs associated with them: Knock, Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg are part of Irish culture. Then there are the holy wells, and the little places associated with more local saints, well favoured across a…
Staff and students of St Patrick’s College, Cavan, gathered earlier this month to thank Dr Leo O’Reilly, former Bishop of Kilmore, for his much-appreciated work in the diocese on the occasion of his retirement. Bishop O’Reilly said his last Mass in Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre’s Conaty Chapel on March 8 in the presence of the…
Green Fingers In April the lion that is March loosens its icy grip on the garden. You need to keep on top of hoeing and weeding. Go through your beds and borders: Remove all the annual weeds now before they get a chance to go to seed. Using a border fork dig up all…
Dear Editor, It was refreshing to read how President Jean-Claude Juncker has spoken to the bishops of Europe about the role of Catholic Social Teaching in the European Union (IC 21/3/2019). Although Pontiff after Pontiff has spoken of this over the decades, including Pope Francis when addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg a few years…
A man recently came up to me after an event in which I was participating in a neighbouring parish to his own. A hugely-committed man with a background in accounting, he recounted to me his not-so-happy brief membership of the finance council of his own parish. He had been approached to join the council by his…
Every now and then a programme comes along that you’d like to shower with awards. And so it is with the provocatively (and inaccurately!) titled Guns and Rosaries (RTÉ1, Thursday) – definitely my top religious programme of the year so far. It was a fascinating documentary on the life of Fr Patrick Peyton, known as…
Pat O’Kelly Like the first performances of both Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Rome on February 20, 1816, and Verdi’s La Traviata in Venice on March 6, 1853, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was a flop at its Milan première on February 17, 1904. The principal problem with the Rossini lay with supporters of rival…
Marriage counsellors wanted as Accord launches recruitment drive Accord, the Catholic Marriage Care Service, has urged counsellors to enrol in their Certificate in Counselling. The course will run from October 2019 through June 2020 and will be run in conjunction with the Pontifical University in Maynooth. Executive administrator Harry Casey said marriage counsellors are in demand more than ever. “Marriage and families…
Human race needs green space The great outdoors may be one of the cheapest therapies for children, a new study from Denmark shows. Kids who grow up surrounded by nature have up to 55% less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life, according to the paper from Aarhus University in Denmark, published in the…
Peter Costello
Paul Gargan
Michael Kelly
Brendan O’Regan