Official Ireland has its heroes and villains. The heroes and villains of the first few decades after independence in 1922 are easily categorised. The heroes are the ones who propelled Ireland forward into the modern age. They are people like Noel Browne, Sean Lemass, TK Whitaker and Gay Bryne. The villains are the ones who…
For obvious historical reasons, the vast majority of primary schools in Ireland are Catholic. The same applies to about half of secondary schools. The national school system arose out of the parochial schools. The vast majority of Irish people prior to independence in 1922 did not want to send their children to State schools because…
Pope Leo’s first encyclical was published last week. It is called Magnifica Humanitas, and the best English translation of that is probably ‘The Grandeur of Humanity’. The main topic of the encyclical is Artificial Intelligence (AI), although the lengthy document deals with a lot of other subjects as well, including, briefly, just war theory (is…
It is possible that your image of the Dublin Central constituency still goes back to the days of socialist TD, Tony Gregory, who used his political leverage with Charlie Haughey to extract public monies for a very working-class part of the city when money in general was scarce and unemployment was high. Back in those…
A video has been doing the rounds online of an Italian priest at a funeral Mass here in Ireland interrupting a eulogy. It is not clear how long the man in question had been speaking for, but the priest suddenly announces: “That’s enough”. He said a boy near-by was sick and presumably the priest was…
Justice Minister, and possible future Fianna Fáil leader, Jim O’Callaghan made an interesting comment a few days ago when he said that our high rates of income tax are “imprudent, demoralising and contrary to the public good.” His reference to the public good was particularly interesting because he might as well have said the “common…
In the space of just 10 years the number of Catholic weddings taking place in Ireland has fallen by half. If that is not a sign of the times, it’s hard to know what is. But what exactly is it a sign of? Let’s have a look at the facts and figures before trying to…
Pope Leo XIV is just back from a trip to several African countries which is already best remembered for remarks he made on the way there, and on the way home. As has been the papal custom going back to the days of Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo took questions from journalists. Those questions…
We hear an awful lot about the ‘manosphere’, that is, online discussions that sometimes tell young men to treat women in sexist, exploitative ways. There was a huge public debate about ‘toxic masculinity’ last year when a series called Adolescence was aired. The central character was a 13-year-old boy who murdered a girl who went…
Last year, I wondered on social media whether Donald Trump was the most pagan president the United States has ever had. I can’t remember exactly what had prompted this, but I remember having the same thought when he said at a remembrance service for the murdered conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk, that, unlike Kirk’s wife, he…