For the first time ever, this year some of my second level students queried whether we should be singing, ‘O Come Emmanuel, the great Advent hymn. The reason? It refers to Israel, and in particular, to ransoming captive Israel. Students politely explained that they do not support Israel’s action in Gaza and as a result,…
With little else in the news aside from wars and rumours of wars (Matthew 24:6), along with murder trials and extreme weather events, I freely admit to seeking escapism when I went with my husband, youngest son and his friend, Jacob, to see The Miracle Club, directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan. The fact that The Miracle…
Forgiveness is an endangered virtue in our society, which seems addicted to the cancellation of people judged to hold unacceptable views. Instead, something like Orwell’s ‘Two Minutes Hate’ is triggered, where people foam at the mouth in anger in programmed ways. However, something unusual happened on Twitter recently, (I refuse to call it X, which…
As you read this, a courageous bishop is sitting in solitary confinement in a Nicaraguan prison – Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa. We are so flooded with bad news that it can sometimes be hard to care about a country thousands of miles away. The Irish Catholic has played a valuable role in helping us…
Recently, I got on a crowded Luas and sat down, delighted to find an empty seat. I then glanced at the other side of the carriage. My heart sank. I saw immediately why the seat had been free. There were two tough-looking individuals with their feet up on the seats. Both had that malnourished look…
The fact that RTÉ concealed additional payments to broadcaster, Ryan Tubridy, to the tune of €345,000 will undermine confidence still further in the public service broadcaster. In a disturbing article in the Sunday Independent, an anonymous whistleblower claims that Mr Tubridy’s salary is just the tip of the iceberg. Apparently, it is a dirty little…
It is great news that every primary school in Greystones has signed up for a ban on smartphones. It is a significant gesture when everyone is wringing their hands about the impact of smartphones but few are doing anything about it. It is not enough, however. There need to be familial, local, national and international…
In barrister Marie O’Shea’s independent review of the abortion legislation, abortion is taken as an unqualified good. Therefore, anything standing in the way has to be removed. The three-day waiting period is framed as dispensable. And yet the review acknowledges elsewhere in a section on consent, that “there are risks that women may regret their…
Things we do every year are familiar, comforting and sometimes, numbing. Lent, Holy Week and Easter are supposed to remind us of the central, astonishing truth of Christianity – God loved us so much that he died for us. Even more astonishing, he then ended the dominion of death by rising. This ought to be…
It was great to see the plight of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez brought to public attention by The Irish Catholic recently. The story arose from a parliamentary question posed by Carol Nolan, TD. Deputy Nolan does sterling work drawing attention to unpopular causes, along with many of her fellow Independent and minority party TDs. Nonetheless,…