Family Activities Annie O’Connell Your family may be coming back to earth with a bang after the excitement of Christmas. If the children are feeling a bit under the weather after the holidays, we can help them to express and accept their emotions. We can explain how we all need to get more sleep,…
Health Matters Dr Andrea Fitzgerald Depression is a common illness, affecting more than one in 10 people in Ireland at any one time. Nearly 20 per cent of us will suffer from depression at some point in our lives. Depression is so common globally that the World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2020…
In a rediscovered letter, a dying mother says goodbye to her young daughter ‘When we bought two (copy) books for your homework so that you had the opportunity to use the one ”like all the others” I made up my mind to write a long, long letter to you in the one you didn’t…
Denis Buckley describes some of the work of Humanitarian Volunteers in Kenya Have you ever considered volunteering for a short period in Africa? The support of volunteers from Ireland has now become crucial to the survival of many small projects. The collapse of the Celtic Tiger and the global credit crunch has had…
Family Activities Anne O’Connell Make an agreement with your child to do something special that will help make this year a good one. Write out your intention, put it in an envelope and keep it in a safe place — remind yourselves about it every now and then. A good new year’s goal for…
Health Matters Dr Andrea Fitzgerald Happy new year! I hope that, after the inevitable excesses of Christmas, your new year’s resolutions include some plans to optimise your health and fitness this year. Research has consistently shown that physical fitness is vitally important to health. Indeed, it may be healthier to be overweight and fit…
Precious Thoughts: Daily Readings from Thomas Merton By Fiona Gardner (Darton, Longman &Todd, €13.19 / £10.99 pb) Anthony Redmond Thomas Merton died in 1968 at the age of 53. He is perhaps more popular and relevant today than ever. He was not alone one of the great spiritual guides and mentors of the 20th…
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed an Irish Franciscan missionary to lead a diocese of nearly 400,000 Catholics in Honduras. Fr Michael Lenihan, a native of Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, will head up the newly-formed Diocese of Le Ceiba in the Central American nation. He was ordained a member of the Franciscan Order (OFM) in 1980…
Eamon Maher The year 2011 continued the painful decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland. The publication of the Cloyne Report was followed by an unprecedented attack on the Vatican by the newly elected Taoiseach — and practicing Catholic — Enda Kenny. For the leader of the Fine Gael party to claim that the…
Prime Minister David Cameron’s King James Bible speech Edited for length. Full length speech on www.irishcatholic.ie ‘It’s great to be here and to have this opportunity to come together today to mark the end of this very special 400th anniversary year for the King James Bible. The Bible is a book that has not just…