Stereotyping is normally regarded as a bad thing, and that’s fair enough, but sometimes it seems that it’s acceptable to stereotype certain people, including Catholic priests. These thoughts were prompted by a few episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, currently showing on TV3, Wednesday nights. Last week’s episode wound up a story about…
Brendan O’Regan
Grim reality of rating lives as not quite human
One thing that makes me proud of Ireland is our largely pro-life culture, but sadly this ethos is under constant threat. Last Friday’s interview with Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) on Newstalk Drive was disturbing listening. She was particularly frank in seeing abortion as a fall back option when contraception failed.…
Reasoned debate suffers amid shifting narratives
It’s all about The Narrative – you know, the version of a story carefully spun to suit somebody’s agenda, gleefully swallowed by the unthinking and enhanced by a trip to Outrage Factory. And so it was with the symphysiotomy controversy. For the last few years this child birth intervention was seen as ‘barbaric’, ‘torture’ and…
Emotional intensity reigns in The Missing
After the recent political earthquake and the ongoing aftershocks it’s a relief to get back to some fictional drama. The Missing (BBC One Wednesday nights) is the second season of this mystery series about people going missing in the most criminal of ways. The plot is complex and there’s lots of time shifting between…
Heroes who have found their meaning of life
I enjoyed several thought-provoking interviews last Sunday. First up, on Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster) was philosopher Julian Baggini, author of a new book, The Edge of Reason. I could relate to his notion that public debate nowadays is very often guided by emotion or poorly thought out ideas rather than rational thought. He made…
Ashers to ashes, equality in dust
The culture wars were firing on several fronts last week, and it started early. In the ‘gay cake’ controversy the Ashers bakery decision was announced on Monday of last week in Belfast. The appeal by the McArthur family, owners of Ashers, was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which led to quite a bit of…
Dark moments and shots at redemption
‘Challenging’ was the description that most came to mind as I watched Beyond Redemption? A Would You Believe? Special, last Thursday night on RTÉ 1. After years of concentration on the victims of sexual abuse this programme focused on the perpetrators and what could be done to support them in such a way that they…
The gift of faith across the years
It’s great to hear people being enthusiastic about their faith…it can be inspirational and infectious. These thoughts were prompted by last Saturday night’s The Conversation on BBC World Service. Two religious sisters were interviewed: Mother Hildegard a Benedictine sister from Australia but now in Tyburn Convent, London and Sr Tracy Kemme, a young American woman…
Screening in and screening out
A World Without Down’s Syndrome? on BBC 2, Wednesday of last week was a compelling personal documentary by actress Sally Phillips on the issue of our attitudes to Down’s Syndrome, made all the more relevant by her having a son, Olly, who has the condition. Phillips had questions: What kind of society do we want to…
Stunt politics and suffering little children
It was probably the most watched TV broadcast ever, with around 100 million viewers – the first US Presidential Debate (BBC News channel) was a lot to wade through last Tuesday morning and the advance hype didn’t lead to the anticipated drama. I have no time for either candidate, and it amazes me how…