Mags Gargan and Greg Daly ‘Resentment’ an inaccurate reporting Church leaders have been urged to stand up to negative bias in the media, after a recent spate of ‘Church-bashing’ during emotive debates around abortion. This comes after Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there was a “justified resentment” among priests, religious and committed Catholics at being “unfairly…
Rosary crusade at Mass rock site
A section of the crowd at a Rosary crusade on May 1 on a country road close to a Mass rock near Greencastle in Co. Tyrone, where a Canadian mining firm refused permission for a Catholic service last year. The Rosary will be said at the site every night during May. Photo: Mal McCann
Politicians call on Govt to declare ISIS atrocities against Christians genocide
A group of 22 TDs and Senators has called on the Government to recognise as genocide ISIS’s persecution of minority communities including Iraqi and Syrian Christians and Yazidis. In a letter drafted by The Iona Institute, Aid to the Church in Need and Church in Chains, the politicians urge the Minister for Foreign Affairs and…
First church soup kitchen opens in the North
Fr Dominic McGrattan, in the background, serves food at St Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street in Belfast after a Mass of Hope for the city’s homeless community. A soup kitchen will operate at the church every Friday and Saturday night from 7-11pm. Photo: The Irish News
‘Suicide is not the way’ – Priest’s plea to youth
A Co. Tyrone priest has given his phone number out from the church altar at a teenagers’ funeral, in a direct appeal to young people in need to seek help. Fr Daniel McFaul told mourners at St Mary’s Church in Killyclogher that Elle Trowbridge was “a young and beautiful lady…who was caught in the live…
Curial training event was ‘excellent’ – Marie Collins
Staff Reporter Marie Collins’ first training event for Vatican officials since her resignation from Pope Francis’ child protection commission was “encouraging” and “very positive”, the leading advocate has said. Mrs Collins announced her resignation in February from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, citing frustration with obstructive curial officials. Despite this, she joined…
Uniform plans ‘micro-management’
Government demands that schools reduce uniform costs to ease parents’ financial pressures have been criticised as reactive and unacceptable micro-management by the president of the body which represents faith-based schools in Ireland. Speaking at the AMCSS/JMB annual general meeting in Killarney, Fr Paul Connell said the planned changes would do “little or nothing to reduce…
Citizens’ Assembly was not a uniquely well-informed body of citizens
Dear Editor, Greg Daly’s article on the so-called ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ – ‘Unrepresentative advice from an unrepresentative body’ (IC 27/04/2017) – is illustrated by a picture of the gathered group of citizens and a sheet showing the result of one of the ballots conducted by the assembly. The ballot, considering the question of whether abortion should…
Varied visions of Irish life since 1916
Felix M. Larkin Ireland: The Autobiography – One hundred years in the life of the nation, told by its people ed. by John Bowman (Penguin Ireland, €25/£20) Shakespeare’s stage Irishman in Henry V, Captain Macmorris, famously asks “What ish my nation?” He answers his own question with these words: “Ish a villain, and a bastard,…
Finding a place for values that last
Fr Vincent Sherlock Nobody was as surprised as myself. Ed Sheeran was playing his second concert in Croke Park and the reviews of the first concert were incredible. I thought about what a positive influence Ed had been in the lives of 160,000 plus people over two nights. My being there, I thought, had some…








