Fr Paul Murphy, the army chaplain stabbed multiple times on his way into Renmore army barracks in Galway last Thursday night, was very fortunate to escape with his life, and it seems, without any long-term, life-altering incidents. The alleged assailant was a 16-year-old who cannot be named because of his age. Gardai have established that…
This is one of those man-bites-dog stories. A survey has just been released by the Ombudsman for Children which shows that secondary school children want more, not less religion taught in class. This is the precise opposite of what we’ve been led to believe, which is to say, that secondary school pupils want less religion…
What were we supposed to make of the Olympics opening ceremony last weekend? It very strongly divided opinion, for reasons to be explained. An Olympics is still an exciting event, even it has lost some of its allure and romance because of drug scandals and probably because it has got so big and commercialised as…
It’s hard to make any certain calls about American politics these days with something new and dramatic seeming to happen every time you turn on the news, but at the moment it looks like the presidential election will be fought between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Vice-President. In the last few weeks, we have…
Personally, I would not have refused Holy Communion to Fine Gael politician and Junior Minister, Colm Burke, if I were a priest or eucharistic minister. Nonetheless, Fr Gabriel Burke, the priest who did refuse Deputy Burke communion, has prompted a necessary debate on who should receive communion and when, because the attitude to the receipt…
Men ought to call out one another’s misogyny, according to Taoiseach Simon Harris. Speaking in the Dail last week on the topic of male violence against women, he remarked: “It is incumbent on men to take leadership positions and not allow the worst of us to speak for the rest of us”. He added: “Every…
Walking though the centre of Dublin last Friday, fans of Taylor Swift were much in evidence hours before the first of her three concerts in the Aviva stadium even started. They were mostly teenage girls, sometimes with their mothers along for the experience. A lot of the fans (both the teenagers and their mothers) were…
The British General Election will take place on July 4. Labour is expected not only to win but may achieve the biggest majority ever seen in the House of Commons. The Conservatives, in power without interruption since 2011, are in for an almighty hammering. Since the last General Election in 2019, when the Tories won…
A major revision of the primary school curriculum is underway, one that will affect how the half a million children currently in our primary schools will be taught and all future children for years to come. It is a matter of great importance, but it has barely come to public or political attention at all.…
We are not at all as European as we think. For all the talk of ‘being Europeans’ (which we clearly are), almost everyone identifies with and relates to their own country first. It is the same across the rest of Europe and next door in Britain as well. This is why we know much more…