Sweet Treats This recipe is inspired by one of my favourite chefs, Nigella Lawson. Her unapologetic love of butter and sugar, along with her love of eating well, means her recipes are always indulgent and decadent. These millionaire’s squares are a wonderful treat for children and adults alike. The shortbread base and gooey cheat’s caramel…
Month: May 2022
Radio Maria offers a cheerful and uplifting menu
Up to last week I’d never heard of a Mariathon before. Well, it’s a worthy fundraising drive by Radio Maria Ireland as I discovered when I dipped in to a few shows on the station during the week. It’s a great service for Catholic listeners and is widely accessible by Saorview, YouTube and its own…
A feast of Brahms awaits in Dublin
The NSO’s concert at the National Concert Hall tomorrow evening – Friday 20 – brings together two pianist/composers whose lives were intrinsically linked following their first meeting in Düsseldorf in 1853. The senior, by 14 years, was Leipziger Clara Schumann married to composer Robert Schumann; the other was Hamburg-born Johannes Brahms. Robert and Clara were…
Be loved and liberated by God
The Sunday Gospel In the opening prayer of today’s Mass we ask God to help us celebrate our joy in the resurrection of the Lord. The Gospel reading today (John 14: 23-29) sparkles with reasons for Christian joy. It is set in the uplifting conversation of Jesus with his disciples after the last supper. The disciples were confused…
In Short
President Higgins unveils St Patrick sculpture President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins unveiled a sculpture of St Patrick and King Laoighre in Sandycove, Dublin, May 6. President Higgins and his wife Sabina Higgins visited Sandycove to unveil the newly installed piece of public art at Otranto Park. The standing stone sculpture, designed by sculptor Imogen…
Too much to expect gratitude?
Dear Editor, In all the hullabaloo around the proposed new National Maternity Hospital (NMH), the entire thrust of most mainstream media commentary is an obsession to ensure that a key part of the work of the maternity hospital will be ending the lives of the most vulnerable human beings – unborn children. The Religious Sisters…
President Putin and the Giant Irish Elk
The images from Moscow of the marking of Victory Day, with which the news is filled at time of writing, brought into my mind a fleeting thought that President Putin might like to know more about the evolutionary significance of the extinct Giant Irish Elk. That it has become extinct is only a part of…
The intimate connection to the bog
Notebook I have lived and worked in a predominantly rural parish in the midlands for the last ten years. In that time, we have had national debates about many issues including same-sex marriage, abortion, Brexit and the demise – and possible resuscitation – of the Celtic Tiger. All of those issues and many more have…
Sisters deserve gratitude, not the constant ridicule
Editor’s Comment At lunchtime on Tuesday a lengthy 1,019-word statement from the Department for Health landed in my email inbox. It hailed May 17 as a “significant day for women’s health” in Ireland and announced that the Government that morning approved “the legal framework that will underpin the ownership and governance arrangements for the new…
Prelature prohibited from accepting aid from those damaging Amazon
A Catholic prelature in Brazil’s Amazon has decreed that its parishes will not accept donations from any person or company that displaces minorities or damages the earth. Bishop José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira of Itacoatiara has prohibited parishes, pastoral communities, groups and movements linked to the prelature – similar to a diocese – from receiving…



Brendan O’Regan




Peter Costello

Michael Kelly
