Sr Patricia Speight shares her faith journey with Mags Gargan One of the iconic images from Pope Francis’ trip to Kenya in 2015 was of an overjoyed Irish Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa taking his picture from the crowd. Belfast-born Sr Patricia Speight found herself appearing in newspapers across the globe, but it was not…
Ireland and the Holy See “have some different perspectives” but share a belief in working for a just world, said the Minister for Foreign Affairs as he officially reopened the Irish chancery to the Holy See. Following a meeting with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Holy See Secretary for Relations with States in the Vatican, Charlie Flanagan…
The “heartbroken” family of Derry footballer Ryan McBride is being supported in their grief by the community’s “spirituality of presence”, according to their parish priest. The hugely respected Derry City captain died suddenly on Sunday when he went for a nap after training. He leaves his father Lexie, sisters Colleen, Siunin and Caitlain, his grandfather…
The Pioneer Association has launched a fundraising appeal to raise €100,000 in advance of the withdrawal of the Irish Jesuits at the end of this year. The Pioneers Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart was founded in 1898 by a Dublin Jesuit, Fr James Cullen, to address the damage being caused by excess alcohol.…
The girl from the 2004 Trócaire box tells Mags Gargan how the charity changed her life Josiane Umumarashavu saw the sea for the first time last week on Dollymount Strand in Dublin’s Clontarf. It was a week of firsts for the 26-year-old: the first time on a plane, the first time outside of her native…
A leading peace campaigner in the North has expressed optimism that the political parties will be able to agree a new power-sharing deal at Stormont before the upcoming deadline. Following the Assembly election on March 3, the law requires a fresh election after three weeks if there is no coalition formed. Fr Gary Donegan CP,…
Mags Gargan speaks to the Director of the Palestrina Choir “He who sings prays twice,” is the often quoted line from St Augustine, and this would be the experience of Blanaid Murphy, after nearly 15 years at the helm of the Palestrina Choir. “Sacred music gives you a glimpse of something beyond yourself, a window…
Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind are celebrating 40 years of helping the blind, vision impaired and families of children with autism, writes Mags Gargan Imagine a boy who never plays. A boy who never talks. Who never laughs. Who has no friends. A boy who never hugs anyone, or shows any expression of love.…
The announcement that RTÉ Radio will continue its longwave 252 service until 2019, while it seeks an alternative service to facilitate Irish people in Britain, has been widely welcomed. RTÉ had previously announced that it would close its longwave service, which includes the broadcast of Sunday Mass, in 2014 as part of a migration to…
“Here are people who are undocumented in Ireland and they are not being treated well” The Bishop of Elphin has called on the Government to exercise the same energy to help the plight of asylum seekers in Ireland as undocumented Irish abroad. Bishop Kevin Doran told The Irish Catholic he would like to see “a…