I have a confession to make: I once voted for Fine Gael. There, I said it. It is a long time since I have seen the error of my ways, but the events of the past week provide yet another depressing reminder of that party’s insistence upon stifling conformity. The President of Young Fine Gael (YFG),…
The View In her 1979 essay ‘Let Us Not Be Hypocritical’, the late Harvard professor Judith Shklar wrote that: “Hypocrisy remains the only unforgiveable sin even, perhaps especially, among those who can overlook and explain away almost every other vice.” I found myself reflecting on this idea recently, when the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, got…
The summer has come and I am on holidays on a small island off the west coast of France. The landscape is a flat patchwork quilt of salt marshes criss-crossed with bicycle paths. Cycling from one village to the next, it is the landmark of the church spire that draws you to your destination. Village…
We are to have a referendum on May 24. The proposal is to change the Constitution to make it easier and quicker to get a divorce. The referendum will pass. For anyone who is brave enough to take part in public debate opposing the proposed change, I predict that this is the way it will…
The View Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has published an essay commenting on the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church for some time. The former Pope broke his usual silence in order, in his own words, “to contribute one or two remarks to assist in this difficult hour”. At the heart of…
The View We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation on Monday next. Reflecting on this seminal moment in the history of Salvation got me thinking about Mary’s role in it as a young girl, and how different a view modern society and feminism promotes. Today’s feminist empowerment classes surely would utterly reject Mary’s submission…
The View In the aftermath of last May’s referendum, there has been a dearth of pro-life commentators on radio and TV broadcasts to discuss the implementation of the new abortion laws. But ignoring those who represent a third of the voting public is not enough for those in journalistic circles who influence what we…
The View Catholic education in this country is not working. Last Summer’s abortion referendum was a wake-up call in this regard: how could so many people, educated in Catholic schools for the most part, have voted to strip the most vulnerable among us of all rights? How could an educated Catholic have voted for…
The View I was on the phone to a friend recently, discussing the sorry saga of the legalising of abortion in this country when she asked me whether I was reading much about it. I said no, I was considering how to decorate our home for Christmas, which I said was much more important. This…
We have just entered the month of the Dead. November is a time when, as Catholics, we are reminded that the dead are still with us. What, then, should we make of the increasingly gaudy – and gory – festival of Hallowe’en, just past? I must confess that I find Hallowe’en increasingly disturbing. Aside from…