“Will you watch the new film, The 8th, about the 2018 referendum?” I asked a friend who had canvassed for the pro-life cause in that plebiscite. “Through gritted teeth,” she replied. The film was, as the film critic Donald Clarke put it, “ecstatic” for its’ natural constituency – that is, the pro-choice side. (It is…
Over the past week or so, the BBC’s globally-famous interview with Princess Diana in 1995 has come back to haunt the corporation. Accusations – and evident proof – of underhand and deceptive methods of gaining access to Diana have emerged. Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has shown that the interviewer, Martin Bashir, used forged documents to…
England was merry this past week as bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres and art galleries opened up – Church services had been available for weeks. But people were urged to be cautious. The message from the authorities was insistant: “don’t think as an individual: think of how your behaviour may affect others.” Cultural nudge In its…
“The rich are different,” Scott Fitzgerald famously said, and it is an observation which contains some truth. And yet when Bill and Melinda Gates announced they were proceeding towards a divorce after 27 years of marriage, others could identify with what is called the ‘silver split’ – when older couples break up having gone past…
A hundred years after Northern Ireland was established by an act of partition is a timely moment to look back over that historical development. And I think, if we are being honest, we on the southern side of the border had an ambivalent attitude over many decades. We deplored partition – naturally – and it was a…
Truly, one of the great achievements of modern medicine is the treatment of babies in the womb. An unborn baby with a tumour on her lung – spotted by a routine ultrasound scan at 19 weeks – can now have corrective laser treatment surgery which saves her life. Prof. Basky’s work is a testament to…
Because most people of faith are law-abiding, there has been Church compliance with the Government’s draconian regulations against public worship – even though, as this newspaper has pointed out repeatedly, all across Europe, and Britain, churches are open for prayer and services. Yet, in the light of history, it is utterly shocking that this new…
One of the great benefits of lockdown, for me, has been the experience of participating in various lectures and talks by Zoom. And I can now say that I’ve ‘attended’ Trinity College Dublin – at least vicariously, via excellent history seminars, hosted by TCD’s Centre for Contemporary History and chaired by Prof. Eunan O’Halpin. Civil…
Recently, two young women in Cork were pictured happily with new-born twins. Geraldine Rea and Niamh O’Sullivan were delighted with the babies and although Geraldine actually gave birth to the twins, both women will be registered as parents, under the Children and Family Relationships Act of 2015. They said it was a great step forward…
Easter Sunday this year falls on my 77th birthday, so I’ll be marking it with gratitude for the gift of my life. To be honest, my poor Ma wasn’t exactly thrilled when she found herself with a fourth pregnancy in her forties when her other children were born a good decade before that. But she…