Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore by the terrible things that go on in the world, you get a double whammy. First off, on the News at One (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) I heard about the awful stabbing of a woman in a church in Tramore, during the Rosary and just before…
Some books are remembered as much for their epigrams as themselves. One thinks of L.P. Hartley’s The Past Is Another Country; Tolstoy’s Happy families are all alike. I’d wager that what most people will remember from Andy Serkis’ Animal Farm (PG), as they probably did from the George Orwell book on which it’s based, is…
Temple of God: An Unbroken Vision of the Virgin Mary, by Theo Andreou (Gracewing, £15.99 / €18.99) It can be hard for the rising generation to imagine just how cut off the Ireland of their grandparents and great-grandparents was from the worldwide expressions of Christianity. That all changed, thankfully, with the Second Vatican Council. The…
Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict: Historical Perspectives from Ireland and Europe, ed. by Richard C. Allen, Felix M. Larkin, Oliver O’Hanlon and Aoife Whelan; Studies in Franco-Irish Relations, volume 26 (Peter Lang AG, £40.00 / €49. 40) This is a collection of essays about a most important subject; the freedom of…
Remembering Peasants: a Personal History of a Vanished World, by Patrick Joyce (Penguin £25.00 / €29.99; also available in paperback) Often in writing reviews a relevant passage in the Gospels will come to mind. This time from John 4:38 (in the familiar words of the Douay-Rheims version), where Jesus tells the disciples: “I have sent you…
Two ordinations, in July 2016 and June 2017, to which I, with my wife, was very kindly invited, put hitherto wholly unknown places in the suburbs of Cork on the map for me: St Joseph’s Church, Little Island, and Holy Cross Church, Mahon. Memorable, out-of-the-ordinary weekends both ceremonies were. Then, vowing to return some day…
Bishop Ger Nash, who was previously appointed as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ossory in January of this year, has been appointed Bishop of Ossory by Pope Leo XIV. He will now minister simultaneously as Bishop of Ferns and Bishop of Ossory. In a statement made today, Bishop Nash described the appointment as the…
The outgoing Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland has said he has witnessed “an intense, hidden vitality” in Irish parishes and dioceses especially in the West and the North of Ireland and has “no doubt” it will bear visible fruit in the synodal process and in a resurgence of vocations to the ministerial and religious life. In…
You’ll have noticed that there’s a current fascination with the ancient world, exemplified by Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie of The Odyssey, and the likes of Prof. Mary Beard constantly extolling the glories of Imperial Rome. Dominance Books tracing the dominance of pre-Christian Greece and Rome, and their influence on our civilisation flow regularly off the…
“The government is not doing enough,” said Aontú representative Sen. Sarah O’Reilly to The Irish Catholic regarding children’s access to pornographic content in online spaces, an issue addressed in a recent bill sponsored by herself and Sen. Ronan Mullen in the Seanad. The Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill, currently before the third stage…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Peter Costello
Mary Kenny