Then Mark Lenaghan was jailed in the 1980s, he encountered a priest who would lead him back to Christ – and along an amazing path to ordination as a permanent deacon. In the coming weeks, a fresh batch of men will take this path, including five from the Dioceses of Armagh and Dromore. They will…
During a retirement Mass on Sunday, September 14 at St Aidan’s Parish Church in Ferns, Fr Patrick (Paddy) Cushen retired after 54 years of active priesthood. His 20 years as parish priest in Ferns was marked by committed pastoral care, the establishment of a pastoral centre and vocations society, and endless support from the community.…
Who were the 75% that said no to the family and care referendums? Have the government parties lost confidence in their offering and their politics? After a decade of consensus and coalition building, the overwhelming defeat of the apparent centrist position in the 2024 family and care referendums provided a bloody nose to the…
The Preparatory Document for the Pre-Synodal Assembly of the Synodal Pathway of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been released. Called ‘Baptised and Sent’ it lists the themes that will be discussed at the Assembly in Kilkenny Convention Centre on Saturday, October 18, 2025. We list the themes here directly from the document. Themes emerging…
Julieann Moran reflects on how walking together is shaping renewal in the Irish Church, as the Pre-Synodal Assembly in Kilkenny approaches On Saturday, October 18, 2025, the Church in Ireland will gather in Kilkenny for a Pre-Synodal Assembly, an important moment on the road towards the National Synodal Assembly in 2026. Delegates from dioceses, religious…
It’s Jesus’ own mission you have been given: ‘As the Father sent me, so do I send you’ writes Jason Conroy Why live? Now there’s a question! To put it another way: what is it that makes life worth living? What are we living for? Many of us know how to give the ‘correct’…
The Central Statistics Office in Dublin recently declared that Ireland’s population could reach seven million by the year 2057 under high migration projections. The population currently stands at just over five million. However, it reached approximately eight million for the whole island before the famine in 1841. Considering the size of the population before the…
Brian Friel: Beginnings, by Kelly Matthews (Four Courts Press, €29.95 / €24.95) A problem with many modern literary biographies is that their authors hurry over the subject’s earliest years in their haste to get to the years of success and fame, as if failure and obscurity were not a possibility. By contrast this book especially…
On Saturday, September 27, 2025, thousands of Christians from across Ireland are expected to gather in Dublin for the March for Jesus, a public celebration of faith that organisers described as “a family day” and “an open act of proclaiming Christ.” The march will begin at 2pm at the Garden of Remembrance before moving down…
John McGinley Across the UK & Ireland, something quiet and yet unmistakable is stirring. People are beginning to seek God. A quiet revival is breaking ground, and the Spirit is moving with fresh power and purpose. The Lord is at work, drawing hearts, shifting spiritual atmospheres, and calling His Church to consecration, and courageous obedience.…
Martina Purdy
Peter Costello