‘Goodwill to all’ is one of the key messages of Christmas and maybe particularly relevant in this year of Covid-19 restrictions. Social community In all my life, of over seven decades, I don’t think I’ve lived more separated or detached from a social community. Sometimes, it seemed, it was as if all of us had…
The Hunger – RTÉ’s documentary on the Famine – certainly was a landmark achievement in television history, using resources with great skill. It was unsparing in some of its distressing detail – not flinching from mentioning incidents of cannibalism – and in attributing shocking behaviour to ordinary Irish people as well as to the British…
The American international magazine Time has designated 2020 as the worst year ever. This, arguably, emblemises the mentality of ‘presentism’ – that is, the notion that what we are experiencing right now is the worst (or the best) ever, without allowing for the perspective of history. There have been many worse years: we could start…
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was much praised for writing openly about having suffered a miscarriage last July. She and Prince Harry felt “unbearable grief” after they lost their second baby. The miscarriage occurred while she was changing the nappy of her one-year-old son, Archie. “I knew as I clutched my firstborn child that I was…
Pope Francis spoke recently about supporting civil unions for homosexual people, and it’s not the first time he has made that point. He did so as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. He has always been keen to emphasise that gay Catholics are part of the family and that is a point that would, I think, be…
When it was reported in a London newspaper that Catholic priests can feel hurt and dismayed when the Faithful compare and judge their sermons – via internet live-stream Masses – the BBC commentator Nick Robinson remarked smartly: “Join the club!” Those guys and gals in the media are used to both brickbats and bouquets for…
The Covid-19 lockdown has brought about many changes in our lives – we have long lamented the closure of churches for Mass – and even if a vaccine becomes available, it will probably be some time before these changes are reversed. One shift I welcome is the trend towards smaller weddings. Hotels and wedding planners…
November is the month of the dead: traditionally in Ireland, the month of the Holy Souls. Elsewhere, all over Europe, ceremonies to mourn and remember the dead are held. Each November, as an Irish person resident in England (though, when Covid regulations permit, regularly in Ireland) I am faced with the same dilemma: do I…
Ever since I became interested in feminism – it was back in 1967, while in New York – I’ve observed that feminists have been concerned with one prevailing issue. This was sometimes defined as ‘having it all’ – the founder-editor of modern Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown coined that phrase. The British author Shirley Conran…
I am a firm supporter of freedom of speech and of expression. Debate is essential. Even when a saintly person is being considered for canonisation there is the tradition of ‘the devil’s advocate’ – to give a hearing to the adversarial view. Ideas have to be tested. Even wrong ideas deserve an airing because we can…