Recently, while teaching an undergraduate course on contemporary issues in Catholic education, I became aware of how constrained freedom of speech has begun to feel for many young adults. These are final-year Catholic student teachers who are intelligent, thoughtful and on the cusp of professional life. The class encouraged them to engaging with complex and…
The eighth book of Augustine’s Confessions describes the climactic moment of his conversion to Christianity after a prolonged spiritual struggle with his own divided will. This book recounts the final steps of his journey toward fully committing to God, culminating in the famous struggle in the garden and a decisive moment when he hears a…
Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory (January 7–8 , 2026) looked, felt, and even sounded like a deliberate return to two defining instincts of Pope Francis’s pontificate: synodality and mission. But it also hinted at something more strategic than stylistic imitation. Leo is using the world’s cardinals not as stage dressing for a new reign,…
Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and its Maker, by Zachery Leader (Harvard University Press, £29.95 / €34.50) Richard Ellmann was the author of what is regarded as the definitive biography of James Joyce, published in 1959. In Ellmann’s Joyce, Zachary Leader explores not only how Ellmann went about composing that biography but…
As the Catholic Church prepares to join Christians around the world in commemorating the 2026 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the theme chosen also reflects Pope Leo XIV’s hope of unified humanity in an increasingly individualistic world. “There is one body and one Spirit,” drawn from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, is the…
The recent Dáil vote on abortion is a reminder of the volatility that still surrounds the issue – but also of the possibilities now emerging for further pro-life wins, writes Eilís Mulroy The defeat of Paul Murphy’s extreme abortion proposal in the Dáil just before Christmas was a significant and timely boost for the…
The Pope opens his Vatican II series with Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on divine revelation Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! We have started the cycle of catechesis on Vatican Council II. Today we will begin to look more closely at the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, on the divine Revelation. It is…
Recent statements by the Ministries of Education, on both sides of the Irish border, have left a solemn warning that the end of religious education in Catholic schools could be around the corner. This calls for a serious, positive, and radical response. I dare to propose a national plan of action in this article. Restore…
Ireland’s Catholic landscape is changing. On any given Sunday, you might see a family from Kerala sitting beside an Irish grandmother who has prayed in the same pew for fifty years, a Filipino nurse lighting a candle after her night shift, or a Polish choir leading hymns. You might even notice the mixture of languages…
Once upon a time it was entirely realistic to expect that one day you would marry and have children. I was born in the 1960s, for instance, and about 85% of my age group eventually married. Hitting this kind of milestone was completely normal and more or less taken for granted. But it can no…
Eilis Mulroy
David Quinn