EXCLUSIVE The Diocese of Derry – which dates back to the Twelfth Century and is one of the oldest in Ireland – may cease to exist within a decade, according to its outgoing Bishop. In a wide-ranging interview with The Irish Catholic, Bishop Donal McKeown suggested that his successor may be the last Bishop of…
When Bishop Donal was appointed auxiliary bishop in Down and Connor, a brother priest joked: “How the hell did you slip through?” He still laughs at the memory. Bishop Donal, the son of a watchmaker, is conscious that his time as Bishop of Derry is coming to a close. He formally resigned on April 12…
It was a decade ago that I first encountered a Muslim in Belfast, for many years, a city of Catholics and Protestants, and few dissenters. His name was Yousef, and he had come to Ireland to escape persecution. We met on the Falls Road – the west Belfast, where it is more common now to…
Memories of being stopped at loyalist blockades haunted my mind as I watched scenes of fuel protests across Ireland. I remember quite well being stopped at Belfast’s Ormeau Bridge, which was blocked off by loyalist women and wee children, standing defiantly. I beckoned the police officer who was standing on the bridge, redirecting traffic. I…
Between Christmas and Easter, I attended a humanist funeral. It was not by design. I had assumed the deceased was of another Christian denomination, and there would at least be a religious element to the service at the crematorium. “Oh my God,” I thought as the humanist ‘minister’ rose to speak about John (not his…
Before Jesus left for the Mount of Olives to sweat his own blood at Gethsemane, scripture records that the Lord and his disciples sang a hymn – a line easily overlooked in the mysteries of Holy Week. This song, possibly Psalm 118, was something that struck musician and composer Patrick Davey – who was possibly…
A leaflet dropped through my door the other day. The Belfast councillor Donal Lyons was promoting a new scheme to recycle glass bottles. Commendable. Except Cllr Lyons represents the SDLP which has proved a major disappointment. I would like to vote for Donal Lyons. Originally from Dublin, he seems like a decent, gentle person. But…
I was baptised in a converted aeroplane hangar – and I’m always ready for take-off, though sometimes I have crash-landed and messed up my baptismal gown! I was clothed in Christ at St Agnes’ Church, which was built in Belfast after the Second World War. I almost missed my take-off. “You’re too late,” the priest…
Around 500 people poured out of St Patrick’s Church, Dungiven, Co. Derry, last Friday to commemorate the first flame lit by Ireland’s apostle on the Hill of Slane in 433AD. The parish priest, Fr Gerry Sweeney, lit a symbolic fire of faith, hope and love outside the church as hundreds gathered after a week-long Lenten retreat…
It was the summer of 1986 when the teenage Gerry Sweeney drifted away from the sacraments. “I had been missing Mass and I knew something wasn’t right and I thought I better do something about it,” he recalls. He had been covering his tracks by getting other pals to pick up the parish bulletin. His…