Recently, I read a book, The Grieving Body. It mingles author Mary Frances O’Connor’s own experiences of death, particularly of her parents, with extensive research on the effect of grief on the human body. She also references other types of grief, including her own diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the loss of her first spouse…
A recent announcement by The Pillar, a US online Catholic publication, caught my eye. It already offers what it calls ‘indefinite maternity leave.’ It keeps paying for maternity leave until the mom is ready to return to work. It is now going to commit to paying 75% of all employee family adoption costs, and of…
Patricia Routledge died recently. The much-loved British actor was best known for her portrayal of shameless snob, Hyacinth Bucket, although the character insisted that her surname was pronounced Bouquet. The comedy in the series, Keeping Up Appearances, was based on skewering her pretensions. Mrs Bucket had many catchphrases, including answering the phone (which she insisted…
Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, recently talked about the vast increase in threats to politicians. This includes intimidation to the extent that the police advised one politician to avoid venturing into the city centre and instead to stay in the environs of Leinster House. Ms Murphy also talked about fake profiles being set up online purely…
Primary schools have been in the news for months due to historic levels of underfunding, which the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated. In general, primary schools in Ireland, 89% of which are Catholic, inspire high levels of trust and affection in local communities. There are some exceptions, most notably where schools are over-subscribed and parents find…
In May, a major survey carried out by Amarach Research on behalf of the Iona Institute found that Gen Z respondents (18-24-years-olds) are a lot more open to religion than their Millennial counterparts (25-34-year-olds). While only 6% of those aged 25-34 consider themselves religious, this jumps to 17% among 18-24-year-olds. While this is markedly lower…
The recent rise in abortion figures has been sadly predictable but still shocking. In 1998, Prof. Patricia Casey and I organised a conference called ‘5,000 Too Many’. It brought together pro-choice and pro-life people to address the grave situation of 5,000 women having abortions in Britain, and to reduce those numbers by working together. In…
Pope Leo, Pope Francis never took holidays. It became a pet peeve of mine. I felt that he was giving bad example and reinforcing the kind of culture where people could never truly relax. He did reduce his number of work commitments and make time for meeting and corresponding with friends in the summer. However,…
In 2024, a grim little piece of research about reading prowess was published by Johns Hopkins Press. It was called, in a masterpiece of understatement, They Don’t Read Very Well: A Study of the Reading Comprehension Skills of English Majors at Two Midwestern Universities. The research was carried out in 2015, before the advent of…
In the last year or two, there has been a great deal of coverage of a political gender divide opening between younger men and women, with young men drifting more to the right and young women moving firmly to the left. John Burns-Murdoch of the Financial Times was one of the first to note that…