Former minister and Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke, who was the first woman elected to Athlone Urban District Council and subsequently held cabinet positions as the Minister for Health and also the Minister for Education throughout the 1980s and 1990s, was described as a person of “strong character and personality” and somebody whose life was…
Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s call for political parties in the south to make Irish reunification “an objective” and not “an aspiration”, has been met with a call for sensitivity and an understanding that Northern Ireland is still “not a united place”. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Baroness Nuala O’Loan,…
A priest with decades of experience in education has described the Government’s SPHE curriculum, which was brought to public attention by whistleblower-teacher Mary Creedon, who revealed that secondary school students were being exposed to explicit sexual content within classrooms, as being devoid of morals and respect and urged concerned parents and Church leaders to speak…
Following the publication of the Iona Institute’s new study ‘The rapid rise of ‘New Age’ weddings in Ireland: how should the churches respond?’, which reveals that fewer couples are opting for church weddings, journalist and commentator Breda O’Brien said that it can be challenging for churches to compete with the range of options on offer…
It’s been well-documented by now and anyone working in the area long enough will readily confirm it: Vocations are simply hard to come by. They require resources, ingenuity, planning, an appreciation of small successes and an almost undying patience … from both those discerning and those directing. As recently reported in The Irish Catholic, the…
Two politicians have voiced their “relief” in the aftermath of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s decision to drop the controversial ‘hate speech’ section of the proposed Criminal Justice Bill, but have warned that the issue may not yet have been kicked to touch as it’s likely the decision was made “to avoid backlash and divisive…
Knock Shrine hosted a group of Italian parliamentarians who visited Ireland’s International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine, as part of a three day pilgrimage to Ireland last Sunday. Spiritual director for the pilgrimage was Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Pro-Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelisation. The pilgrimage group arrived in Dublin on Friday, September 20 where they…
In the wake of Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announcing his intention to make contraceptives legal for 16-year-olds, although the legal age of consent in Ireland is 17, a member of a group that encourages young people to form healthy relationships in the Faith has said that young people “deserve better” than Government concession to…
The annual Peña Francia celebration took place in St Joseph’s, Berkeley Road, last Sunday in the church, with hundreds of devotees processing in the north inner city before Mass was celebrated by the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Paul Dempsey. Our Lady of Penafrancia in Ireland, is an organisation to promote devotion to…
The unseasonably gorgeous weather we’ve been enjoying of late signifies only one thing: The season of learning has once again returned. The transition from second to third level can often be the most unnerving; A larger student population, gargantuan campuses and choice, an embarrassment of choice. The question of choice is no more apparent than…