TVRADIO Brendan O’Regan In Ireland we do so much good stuff, and so much bad stuff. It’s not just a case of goodies and baddies, but good and bad struggling in all of us. Some of us are caring, some malicious, some just hapless. Sometimes it’s the dysfunctional systems we create. Over the years we…
I’m uneasy when politics, especially party politics, gets mixed up with religion. Commonly it is religion that suffers. Yet the Church has an imperative to speak out on social justice and moral issues. These thoughts were on my mind as I observed the rather bizarre goings on last week, widely covered in the media –…
The religious output of mainstream media channels is patchy – no specifically religious programmes at all in some cases, with significant input in others. BBC continues to impress with its commitment to their long-running pilgrimage-themed series. The latest version came to an end last week. Pilgrimage: The Road to Holy Island (BBC Two, Tuesday, with…
Holy Week tends to get the mainstream broadcasters to turn their minds to matters religious, with some excellent results this year. Oliver Callan (RTÉ Radio 1, Wednesday) had entertainment journalist Olivia Fahy discussing how Christ has been depicted in film. It was respectful, but chirpy, with lots of laughter, which didn’t quite suit the topic.…
Within the Catholic fold, there are all sorts of ways of being religious or spiritual – as the Mary Chapin Carpenter song says, “There’s a Keeper for Every Flame”. Some focus a lot on the sufferings of Jesus, and on various devotions not essential to the faith. There has been much interest scientifically and spiritually…
I’m very pleased to note programmes that give us a sense of hope. I found one this week. Ireland’s Catholics: Signs of Hope (EWTN, Friday) was a timely report from Colm Flynn about the current situation as regards faith in Ireland, especially in relation to young people. We saw 60 of them at a eucharistic…
Sometimes you need an antidote to the darkness of war, and comedy will do for a while. One of the most charming shows on TV in recent weeks is Small Prophets (BBC Two, Monday) – it maintained its whimsical tone consistently up to last Monday’s satisfyingly dramatic final episode. It’s funny, quirky, warm, moving and…
Sadly, the new war in the Middle East continued, worsened and widened last week. In fact, it was something of a hellscape when I woke up last Monday morning. On It Says in the Papers (RTE Radio 1) there was talk of rocketing fuel prices, “apocalyptic scenes”, “fireballs” and “rivers of fire”, as middle-east oil…
Blessed are the Peacemakers”, said the greatest peacemaker of them all. This week my headline might be ‘Man who seeks peace prize starts war’. And so it was that I woke up last Saturday morning to the horrible news that the USA and Israel had launched an attack on Iran, including its capital Tehran. And…
Unsurprisingly, quite a few Lent related items featured in the media last week. The News in Depth (EWTN, Friday) covered Pope Leo’s Lenten Message, with its striking call for a worthy type of abstinence – refraining “from words that offend and hurt.” He called for a “disarming” of language, “avoiding harsh words and rash judgement.”…