A Chaldean Catholic church whose image announced the fall of Mosul in 2014 has been liberated. When so-called Islamic State (ISIS) swept through Iraq in June 2014, a ‘before-and-after’ picture of the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual help in Mosul emerged showing the crucifix topping the building replaced by the black banner of the…
Dear Editor, The loss of four good people with the crash of the Rescue 116 helicopter off the Mayo coast last week was a tragedy, and yet it was one which revealed a side of Christianity and of God that we often overlook – that of compassion. I know of no person who, upon hearing…
Jennifer Roback Morse and Betys Kerekes Jennifer Roback Morse and Betys Kerekes of the Ruth Institute offer advice on how to meet your life partner We all want reliable love in our lives. In this, we are no different than people in any other time in history, despite the tatters of failed marriages all around…
Eco Eye Sr Catherine Brennan SSL Now in its tenth year, Earth Hour 2017 takes place this Saturday, March 25 from 8.30-9.30pm. Earth Hour is the single largest symbolic mass participation event in the world. Born of the hope that people could be mobilised to take action on climate change, Earth Hour now inspires a…
Aoife Kehoe Religion is an exam subject I experience outside the classroom, writes Aoife Kehoe Religious education became an exam subject in 2008. Last year, 1,320 students throughout Ireland sat the exam. The curriculum presents 10 topics from which students must study four. In my class we studied four divergent and truly engaging themes. The…
Donal McCartney Michael Davitt: After the Land League 1882-1906 by Carla King (UCD Press, €50.00) Michael Davitt’s early career has been well documented, most comprehensively by T.W. Moody in Davitt and Irish Revolution 1846-82. It was Moody’s contention that Davitt, in his role as ‘father of the Land League’, made his most significant contribution to…
Inés San Martín For a man who lashes out against misinformation, defamation, calumny and spreading scandal, even once comparing the last offense to eating faeces, Pope Francis has been a victim of several fake news cycles of his own, with one claiming he wanted to change the Ten Commandments being the latest to go viral.…
Dear Editor, In this era where rights overshadow responsibilities and when personal preferences shout louder than Christian doctrine, it may seem churlish to point out that sacred music offered at Mass and especially during Communion should be (a) sacred and (b) appropriate. Indeed, at the beginning of March, Pope Francis, speaking at a gathering organised…
In a Landscape Redrawn by Bishop Donal Murray (Veritas, €10.99/£9.35) Though it is not presented as a Lenten book, Donal Murray’s latest book is very much the sort of book which will provide readers with many insights in the way things are. He is writing very much for those who find the ‘redrawn landscape’ of…
Monody for a Much Loved Bookshop by Louis Hemmings, illustrated by Dora Kazmierak Carraig Books, a long-established bookshop in Blackrock village, is to close soon, certainly before the end of the year. It is one of the few second-hand bookshops that carry a large stock of philosophical and religious books, but as the owner explained…