The View A thoughtful friend of mine asked me whether this pandemic had been sent for a reason. Was it, she wondered, some kind of message from God that we were getting things badly wrong and needed to change our ways? Did we need to return to basics, like loving others and praying? I see…
The View It really is a case of being careful what you wish for. When I wrote before the election that it was time to move away from the politics of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, I had no idea that the country would instead vote for Tweedledodge. In fairness, neither did Sinn Fein, which could have…
The View Gay Byrne, Marian Finucane and Larry Gogan were household names but the loss of the less-well known but very popular 2FM presenter Alan McQuillan at 37 was also a tragedy. At 69, Marian Finucane was the youngest of the older three, with Gay Byrne and Larry Gogan both in their mid-80s. They were all…
The View I love Christmas. No ‘bah, humbug’ for me. Of course, it is much easier to love Christmas when you have been greatly blessed by having a family, a roof over your head and enough to live on. So many people do not even have the basics of life. As a child, there was one…
The View It is remarkable how large a role faith still plays in American politics. There is not a single out-and-proud atheist among the very crowded field of Democratic hopefuls seeking nomination as the presidential candidate. As a non-observant Jew, Bernie Sanders would have been considered perhaps the least religious but even he said somewhat…
The View All saints are extraordinary, in the sense that they manage to turn their lives and wills over to God and through his grace achieve heroic virtue. John Henry Newman is perhaps more extraordinary than most because of the extent of his natural gifts. James Joyce wrote to his long-suffering English patron, Harriet Weaver,…
The View If you build it, they will come. This famous catchphrase from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams is actually a misquote. In the film, an Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner is walking through his fields one night when he hears a disembodied voice saying: “If you build it, he will…
The View Every so often, I come across a book that I feel is worth sharing with readers, and Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Drs John and Julie Gottman is one such. The book concerns how to deepen relationships through a series of dates planned to facilitate in-depth conversations.…
The View Stewardship of the environment is a key Catholic value. Sometimes it is frustratingly hard to implement this value as families and individuals. I am sure that most of us were horrified by the recently published photos of Little Skellig island in Kerry. Gannets are plucking from the sea plastic debris, such as…
There are many tragic aspects to the recent abortion in Holles Street of a healthy baby misdiagnosed with a life-limiting condition, but one thing was sure. Leo Varadkar is entirely wrong when he described it as an “individual tragedy”. It was not an individual tragedy. It was a systemic failure caused firstly, by legalising abortion…