In the middle of the 6th Century, in the green heart of Leinster, a boy was born who would one day leave an enduring mark on Europe. His name was Columban, later Latinised as Columbanus, meaning ‘the white dove’. From an early age, he felt a powerful call to give his life to Christ—a call…
Senator Ronan Mullen has raised concerns that a Council of Europe (CoE) report on banning so-called ‘conversion practices’ is being used to advance contested gender-affirmation policies across healthcare, education and religious settings. Writing in The Irish Catholic, Senator Mullen criticised the report ‘Towards a Ban on Conversion Practices’, authored by British Labour MP Kate Osborne, which…
Donald J Trump is no political philosopher, nor would he have the slightest desire to be one. As Prof. Sheri Berman of Bard College New York quipped last year about Curtis Yarvin, Trump is no Carl Schmitt. Yet in relation to his obsessive desire to gain control of Greenland for the United States, however perversely,…
Family hostilities have always attracted attention because the family is universal, and almost everyone knows what it’s like to experience family tensions. Not for nothing has the mother-in-law joke long been a stock in trade, or the figure of the heartless stepmother appear in fables like ‘Cinderella’. Unsurprisingly, then, the saga of Brooklyn Beckham, first-born…
In the eve of February 1, when winter loosens its grip and the first promise of spring stirs beneath the soil, Ireland turns once more to St Brigid. For centuries, her presence has been felt most strongly on this night—the threshold between darkness and light, between the old season and the new. St Brigid, Ireland’s…
This week’s guest on EDUCATION NATION Jonathan Tiernan, CEO of the Jesuit Education Trust provides a clear-eyed assessment of what lies ahead for Catholic schools should we fail to capitalise on the opportunities before us or if we do not respond adequately to the challenges of the next ten years. He suggests that “the concept…
Strangely the Beckham saga recapitulate the Royal Household turmoil of 2022 when Harry, Duke of Sussex and his rich, glamorous American wife, Meghan Markel, stepped back from royal duties to the consternation to the Firm. They then emigrated to California, where he dug the knife in deeper during a soft Oprah Winfrey interview and a…
As a woman named Breda, one of the many diminutives of Brigid, I feel protective of my patron. I have no problem with people who prefer to venerate the goddess Brigid, but I do wish they would also give due respect to Brigid the saint. The narrative that St Brigid is merely a Christianised, inferior…
One of the things that can make politics tricky is the use of ‘bait and switch’ tactics by activists in and out of government. In the commercial world, ‘bait and switch’ means the act of advertising goods as an apparent bargain, while intending to substitute lower quality or dearer goods all the while. The ‘bait’…
A divine invitation came my way the other day: to look to the rock from which I was hewn. Actually, it was not put quite like Isaiah’s words in chapter 51, verse one. But those words echoed and so I’m heading to Downpatrick this Sunday, on the first day of the Irish Spring, as the…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen
Martina Purdy