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…
Irish human rights groups should campaign for the rights of the disabled, not for their termination
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…
Challenge of building Faith in Lourdes’ young volunteers
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…
Christians can reach out to help Muslims stop radicalisation
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…
Respect for life is rapidly vanishing in Ireland
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…
It takes courage to stand up, but we need courageous witness now more than ever
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…
‘Reproductive health’ is one of those odious Orwellian euphemisms
“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…
Let’s hope mainstream media step outside their bubble in 2017
“Now that being a Christian is neither popular nor profitable, our cultural leaders veer just as markedly in the other direction”, writes Breda O’Brien
Safe public water has to be paid for in some way
“Making enough plastic to satisfy the US water market takes 17 million barrels of oil”, writes Breda O’Brien
Amnesty International’s other terrible propositions
“It is no coincidence that the move to normalise buying and selling sex came from those who work as pimps”, writes Breda O’Brien

Breda O'Brien





