Mary ‘May’ McGee died last week at the age of 81. She earned a significant place in Irish social and legal history in 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled that the decision whether or not to use contraception was a private matter between husband and wife and the State had no right to interfere with…
There is a sense in which anyone of a certain age is a product of Catholic Ireland, including those who react against it, but some are more formed by it than others. You can just see the indelible impression Catholic Ireland has left on them, and one such person in my opinion, is our president-elect,…
Northern Ireland can no longer be viewed as consisting of two groups, religiously speaking, namely the Catholic and the Protestants. What must also be added into the mix are the non-religious, who are growing in number. This is one of the main findings of a major new poll on attitudes to religion in the North.…
When should you cancel your subscription to a streaming channel? I’m not referring here to trying to save yourself some money, but more to save your sanity and also to object to some of the content a given channel is streaming. Netflix is currently embroiled in controversy over a show called Dead End: Paranormal Park,…
When we were growing up, there were certain things that were so taken for granted we didn’t even think about it, such as that every baby would be baptised, and that later in childhood they would make their First Holy Communion followed by Confirmation. Most of us would go on to marry, and when we…
Last week, a very unusual package, no, ‘unusual’ is not the word, a sinister and menacing package arrived by post at the office of the Iona Institute in Dublin city centre. It looked innocent enough, but upon opening it, some kind of white powder poured out on my desk, hands and floor. I guessed immediately…
There is a good chance you had never heard of Charlie Kirk, the young American political activist, until he was murdered in America last week while addressing students at an open-air event at a university in Utah. Only those who follow US politics very closely will have heard of him. I was somewhat aware of…
Last year, Ireland held two referendums which our political leaders, aided and abetted by most of our media, have been very keen to forget about. One was on so-called ‘durable relationships’. No-one could quite say what these were, but ‘durable relationships’ were to be given marriage-like status. Voters worried they were being asked to buy…
The bishops have just released a pastoral letter urging people, especially those who stopped going during the Covid pandemic, to start coming to Mass again. Introducing the pastoral on Sunday, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare & Leighlin diocese, said: “Today’s Pastoral was born out of the experience of the Covid Pandemic” during which “Sunday worship…
The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has raised a very important issue, namely, should the Catholic Church sever its links with the insurance company, Allianz, because of business and investment links the company has with Israel? Allianz is a giant German company that took over Church & General Insurance in the 1990s. It is one…