This week has seen the celebration of Catholic Schools Week in Ireland, which is running from Sunday, January 21st to Saturday, January 27th. Coming around with the unassuming regularity that they do, we often allow all but the biggest annual celebrations to slip us by, but when it comes to celebrating the contribution made by Catholic…
Mary E. Fitzgibbon Last week there was considerable dismay over the proposal to change the name Páirc Uí Chaoimh to Supervalu Park. The Tánaiste rowed into the controversy posting on X: “deeply disappointed and annoyed at the proposal to change the name of Páirc Uí Chaoimh given that Pádraig Uí Chaoimh was a key figure…
Global sensation The Chosen is coming to Irish cinemas from February 1, with the first two episodes of season four set for the big screen. More than 600 million people have watched the multi-series life of Christ and director Dallas Jenkins felt it would do fans a disservice if it didn’t get big screen treatment.…
My friend and colleague Carl Trueman recently observed that “the West is no longer a consortium of serious cultures”. To which I am sorely tempted to add, “…or serious polities”. The two are connected, the cultural decay of the West being a not-insignificant factor in our descent into political infantilism. The exploration of that connection…
Jem Sullivan Dt 18:15-20 Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9 1 Cor 7:32-35 Mk 1:21-28 In this 21st Century, we absorb the news of the world quickly, through myriad technical gadgets. We’re seeking information, knowledge and understanding of the world all day long. As we travel the information superhighway, though, we must learn to discern the authenticity…
Penelope Middelboe You have to keep inside the dolphins in the Venetian lagoon. These tall groupings of two or three wooden pillars, set a short distance apart, mark the outer edge of deeper water. The locals call them bricola. There are apparently 90,000 of them creating sea-lanes like railway tracks to steer clear of…
Dear Editor, There has been a lot of controversy recently regarding immigration with one side expressing concern over its level or type and the other condemning them as simply hating foreign people and being far right. Polarisation is the order of the day and the possibility of a meeting of minds on the subject seems…
When Pope Francis recently approved the blessing of same sex couples by priests, he polarised many Catholics. Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers (16) may polarise them even more. It deals with the struggle of a gay man, Adam (Andrew Scott), with his sexuality, mixing reality and illusion in an intense operetta of the emotions.…
Priests have been more in the news of late, thanks to that ‘Last Priests’ programme reviewed last week. Yet again we got another fine example of a priest in action on Mornings with Wendy (Spirit Radio, Friday) when Rob Clarke interviewed Fr Gabriel Dolan – a Kiltegan missionary in Kenya for the past 40 years.…
Miniature Masterpieces: Cultural identity, artistic expression and a century of Irish stamps, by Stephen Ferguson (National Print Museum, €12.00; also available from the GPO Archives & Museum) The first Irish stamps of the Free State were standard British stamps, adorned with King George’s head, over-printed for Irish use temporarily in the new domain. But soon…
Ruadhán Jones
George Weigel
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello