“…you must stand up for your faith, be unafraid”, writes Mary Kenny I encountered a nun in a Dublin shopping mall last week – she identified me through a mutual acquaintance of schooldays. It took me a few minutes to clock that she was a religious sister, as she was dressed in civvies – indeed,…

“…one single issue should be reviewed seriously, I believe. And that is the ban on contraception”, writes Mary Kenny The former abbot of Glenstal, Fr Mark Patrick Hederman, has suggested that the Church’s teachings on sexuality need to be dramatically modernised, and he has provided a list for this agenda including celibacy and the subjugation…

“the male-dominated structure of the Church makes Catholicism seem old-fashioned and behind the times”, writes Mary Kenny In response to the latest census information – showing that just over 78% of people in the Irish Republic now describe themselves as Catholic (down from 84%), there have been calls to involve more women in the Church’s…

There’s an interesting link between Brexit and Michael Collins. In planning its withdrawal from the European Union, Britain is dusting down the old documents of procedures followed  when Ireland – the 26 counties of the Irish Free State –  left the United Kingdom in 1922-23, as a template of how it was done. As we…

“I hear certain sarky remarks about this being “a new definition of having it all”, writes Mary Kenny There was a young woman of my acquaintance who, a couple of years ago, disappeared from view, and then returned as a male, having had a sex change operation. She was always a boyish kind of girl,…

Martin McGuinness turned away from the path of violence towards the path of peace and reconciliation”, writes Mary Kenny There is little doubt that opinions about Martin McGuinness remained divided at the time of his death. Norman Tebbit, the Conservative peer, could neither forget nor forgive the Brighton bomb of 1984, which crippled his wife…

What would Ireland be without St Patrick? asks Mary Kenny What would Ireland be without St Patrick? Before Christianity, the classical world knew almost nothing of Hibernia. According to Philip Freeman, visiting divinity scholar at Harvard, “the few references to Ireland in classical sources are largely complaints that the island was a land of savages…

“This inflated language is a signal of the anger. Our families did not commit ‘genocide’: they did, however, contribute to the social mores which produced Tuam and its ilk”, writes Mary Kenny It’s understandable – and right – that most people are deeply distressed and desperately upset about the uncovering of the Tuam babies’ remains.…

“marriage certainly needs ongoing support, and it often seems to need more preparation”, writes Mary Kenny In a season when there is much focus on weddings – spring brings us the ‘wedding fayres’ at which the Big Day is so lavishly marketed – it’s surely apt for Pope Francis to focus on marriage preparation, rather…