Dublin diocese has updated its privacy policy to defend itself from lawsuits under the right to privacy and GDPR laws. Some dioceses, including Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s former diocese of Ossory, have faced complaints from individuals alleging their rights were being breached by the dioceses keeping their baptismal certificate after requests for them to be destroyed.…
Month: April 2023
Properly living as an Easter People
Learning to live and celebrate this Easter season confers many benefits on us, writes Jason Osborne Many of us are better at being penitential than we are at celebrating, unfortunately. As Pope Francis said way back in 2013, “sometimes these melancholic Christians’ faces have more in common with pickled peppers than the joy of having…
What to do with a problem like Joe…
Joe Biden’s handlers can hardly have been more pleased about his ‘homecoming’ visit to Ireland. By any measure, the trip was a success and Mr Biden certainly seems to have enjoyed himself. A US-based journalist commenting on the trip pointed out that the crowds who turned out to see Mr Biden outside St Muredach’s Cathedral…
INTO criticises opposition to gender ideology in primary schools
The recent Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) conference saw delegates criticise “insensitive comments” made by school management bodies expressing opposition to teaching controversial gender ideology. Early March saw the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) say that teaching primary school students about transgenderism “would be counterproductive, generating unnecessary divisions in school communities” and that it…
Aontú candidate shocked after home daubed with sectarian graffiti
The home of an Aontú election candidate in Newry was targeted with sectarian graffiti, the party announced on Monday. In a statement Aontú said loyalists defaced Sharon Loughran’s property with the words ‘Aontú IRA out’ and ‘UDA’. The incident has been reported to the PSNI. Ms Loughran said: “This has come as a massive shock to…
Discovering the sanctity of life during war
The Vatican’s 1995 list of significant films is very eclectic, catholic with a small ‘c’ (meaning broad and open minded). If one theme emerges strongly from the panoply, however, it’s the damage caused by war and the importance of human fraternity. I suppose it should hardly come as a surprise – many of those who…
A pro-baby movement from Silicon Valley
If Florence, Paris, or Rome were, at various times in the progress of European civilisation the central source of influence or ideas, the equivalent in today’s world might be Silicon Valley in California. This is where nearly all the tech revolutions have launched, and to which we owe that gadget in our pockets – the…
St George: A man of more than myth and legend
Most of us are familiar with that famous image of a heavenly knight plunging his spear into a serpentine creature, even if we’re not overly familiar with the mysterious hero it represents. That would be St George, who is venerated far and wide to this day, despite the lack of concrete detail we have on…
No reasonable objection can be made to Joe Biden’s Knock visit
The president is clearly not where he should be as a Catholic, but the Pope encourages accompaniment rather than condemnation, writes David Quinn When President Joe Biden was in Ireland last week, there were no reports of him receiving Holy Communion. That meant no bishop or priest here was faced with the potentially very difficult…
Minister Foley inundated with concerned letters about sex education changes
Minister for Education Norma Foley received hundreds of letters from parents, teachers, school principals and medical professionals over plans to reform sex education in primary and secondary schools. The letters question plans for children to be taught about subjects including masturbation, pornography and consent, according to The Sunday Independent. In one letter a primary school…

Ruadhán Jones


Michael Kelly

Chai Brady

Mary Kenny

David Quinn
