Séamus Hickey has seen hurling from nearly every angle – player, mentor, and now observer. A former Limerick hurler, he was a tenacious defender, winning Young Hurler of the Year in 2007 and representing his county for over a decade before becoming an eventual All-Ireland winner in 2018. But his insights into the game extend…
The awakening of Ireland’s Catholic identity The flame of faith in Ireland was enkindled once more during the recent National Eucharistic Procession, which took place in Athlone on 16 March. Nearly 2,000 people gathered for the event, according to the organising team. “Don’t you feel a renewed hope and optimism within the faithful Catholic community…
The pull of Mount Athos had been there for a long time. Visiting monasteries and knowing Benedictines and Cistercians, it was likely that my sights might turn at some point in the direction of that other monasticism of the Byzantine type. After all, Latin west and Greek east were for so long one and the…
Having celebrated the feast of St Patrick, now is a good time to consider our call to evangelise in our day as St Patrick did successfully in his. Explored here are four basic components of evangelisation: the personal, inter-personal, liturgical and cultural. First, the personal. Karl Barth, the Swiss Protestant theologian from the last century,…
“Thirty years ago, the secularisation thesis taught us that religion was heading toward museum piece status in the West. That thesis has not aged well, Dr Anna Rowlands has said, adding “religion is far from a museum piece and continues to exist, in evolving forms, as a complex, multi-layered and dynamic reality in our current…
The national launch of the ‘Ministry of Catechist’ is expected this September with a six-month preparation phase before candidates enter formal formation in 2026, The Irish Catholic has learned. Dr Alexander O’Hara, who was the National Director for Catechetics until a few weeks ago told The Irish Catholic the role is a formal lay ministry…
There is a long Christian tradition – rooted in the Gospels – of showing compassion for women who work as prostitutes. Christian women and early feminists took up this cause in the 19th century – the anti-slavery Christian campaigner Josephine Butler sheltered prostitutes, and halted young girls from being trafficked into prostitution, too. Compassion and…
The snakes have returned to Ireland—at least, that’s the concern raised by Fr Patrick Moore, who sees An Post’s latest St Patrick’s Day stamp design as a troubling sign of the country’s increasing secularisation. In a letter to The Irish Catholic, Fr Moore PP of Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath, lamented that despite St Patrick famously driving…
It was on the way to Mass that I first heard the story of St Joseph and Bobby Clarke. My friend’s aunt, Ann Kelly, needed a lift, and the pair of them were catching up, as I listened from the back seat. “As you know,” said Ann, “I fell out with St Joseph for 33…
A view from the Seanad The Trump/Vance vs Zelenskyy dust-up in the White House was widely portrayed as an ambush of a tired and strained war-hero by a cynical and narcissistic duo bent only on self-aggrandisement. But with the wisdom of hindsight, it seems that Zelenskyy played his hand very badly that day. In old-style…
Renata Milán Morales
Chai Brady
Mary Kenny
Martina Purdy
Senator Ronan Mullen