“Over 200,000 people left the comfort of their own home and spoiled their votes purposefully in order to register a protest against how the presidential election was run” Aontu’s Peadar Tóibín has told this paper In total, he said, “317,000 people either spoiled their votes or voted for a withdrawn candidate. Spoiled votes even “beat…
Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese read a short reflection at the Requiem masses for Fr Dermod McCarthy in Dalkey and Ballinamore on October 24 and 25, 2025. Fr McCarthy who died recently aged 83 was the former head of religious programming at RTÉ and a member of the Radharc film crew in the 1960’s…
When the Catholic University of America’s National Study of Catholic Priests released its 2025 follow-up report this month, one statistic leapt off the page: younger priests are both more conservative and more lonely. It’s a statistic that speaks volumes not just about the American Church, but also about our own here in Ireland as we…
Irish Jesuit theologian Fr Gerry O’Hanlon and former member of the Synod’s organising team said he left the Kilkenny Synodal Assembly on October 18th “strangely flat and disappointed,” noting that “the fire and elation of Athlone in 2022 were conspicuous by their absence.” He asks: “What had gone on? It is as if we were…
Two major gatherings last week — the Pre-Synodal Assembly in Kilkenny and the Researchers in Catholic Education Conference at Marino Institute — offered snapshots of a Church in motion: hopeful, energetic, and sincere, yet still wrestling with its deeper anxieties. Both spoke of renewal. Both faced the same unspoken question: does the Irish Church have…
The exhausted parish priest of Gaza has thanked Irish parishioners for their prayers, support and solidarity during more than two years of war in the region. Argentine-born Fr Gabriel Romanelli IVE said the Christian community in the war-torn territory will play their part in rebuilding their lives, as well as the physical infrastructure. Speaking from…
The government’s budget has used sticky plasters on the housing crisis where major surgery is needed the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has warned adding that the greed of developers has been rewarded while the young consider emigration. “Once again, the government have prioritised the wants—not the needs—of developers. The real boon came to…
When Bishop Brendan Leahy’s recent letter to the people of Limerick was read at Masses earlier this month, its tone carried a rare and unmistakable urgency. “Many of the features of parish life in our Diocese and in Ireland that so many of us grew up with and have become so familiar with, are of…
In his homily at a packed Sunday Mass in Newman Church St Stephen’s Green, celebrating St John Henry Newman’s Feast Day, Fr Gary Chamberland, CSC, said the conversion of St John Henry Newman “gave him [Newman] no comfort” and Newman didn’t come from Anglicanism for emotional reasons or a sense of welcome. “He came because…
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has accused the political establishment of deliberately preventing Maria Steen from entering the presidential election, claiming that party leaders feared she would “win the arguments” with government-backed candidates and “potentially the presidential election.” Writing in this week’s Irish Catholic newspaper, Tóibín said Steen, a barrister and commentator, is “bright, intelligent and…