The View The role of the loyal critic is a vital one in the Church. Many times in its history, the Church has lost its way and been recalled to it through the action of the Holy Spirit working through women and men. President emeritus Mary McAleese clearly sees herself as part of that…
The View Trust is much easier to maintain than to re-establish after it has been lost. The scandals engulfing Oxfam illustrate this clearly. Serious allegations have been made regarding Oxfam personnel making use of women in prostitution during an aid operation in earthquake-hit Haiti. Worse, allegations appear to involve not just women working as…
The View It is easy to become despondent given that our political system is contemplating removing rights for the vulnerable and helpless from our Constitution. A clause that protects both mother and baby is now somehow re-classified as discriminatory in a way that is reminiscent of Orwell’s dark masterpiece, Animal Farm, where Squealer can…
The View T.S. Eliot is one of my favourite poets, and I particularly love parts of the ‘Four Quartets’, although I don’t pretend to understand fully his work. ‘Burnt Norton’, the first of the ‘Four Quartets’, contains references to summer and autumn, but for some reason, I often think of parts of it as…
The View In a significant development, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has challenged its sister body, the Committee on Human Rights. Or perhaps the latter should instead be called the Committee on Human Rights for some, because it has been pushing a ‘right’ to abortion on…
Four years ago, I was asked to accompany a group of sixth-year girls to Lourdes as part of the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage. A whole world unfolded for me, and every year since, I have discovered different aspects. This year, there were 130 sixth-year volunteers, known as blueshirts, including two new schools – Coláiste Chill Mhantáin…
In the wake of the London attacks by radical Islamists, Theresa May has said, “enough is enough”. But how does one counter a movement so loosely organised that it scarcely even deserves the term? Or an ideology which relies on lone agents or small numbers of attackers and on the use of vehicles and knives as…
It has been a bad few weeks for those of us who value life from conception to natural death. First, there was a huge backlash against the National Maternity Hospital being situated in the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital. The perceived problem was that there might be any Catholic influence whatsoever in the place, particularly…
Congratulations to Katie Ascough on becoming president of UCD’s student union. It is a great victory, not least because she made no secret of her pro-life views or that she is a person of faith. It gives great hope to other students and young people in general, that Ireland does not always have to be…
“It would be more accurate to speak of promotion of the right to cause death”, writes Breda O’Brien The idea that you can gather 100 people together over a number of weekends and that they will come to independent conclusions that are better than those arrived at by elected representatives is an interesting one. It…