Here are some of the posts I’ve shared, or followed, on the social media platform ‘X’ over the last few days (at the time of writing). A wonderful ballet performance in the streets of Paris, accompanied by a pianist playing Tchaikovsky; a posting about Ireland being No. 1 among the “most educated countries” in the…
The United States of America celebrates its 250th anniversary of its foundation this coming July, but I wonder how many people in Ireland – or Europe generally – will join in the celebrations? For much of its history, America was seen as a beacon of light, freedom and goodwill, as well as prosperity and opportunity.…
Predictions are always a risky enterprise, since nothing is certain in this life – “we live in no abiding city,” as the Gospel puts it. Yet the world we are entering in 2026 has already been ascertained, in one predominant aspect: Europe is an ageing society. The EU is already the oldest society in the…
Spare a thought for the people of Denmark, who are posting their last Christmas cards, in this year of 2025. For, after a catastrophic fall in the sending of letters and cards via the postman, Denmark is bringing an end to its traditional postal service on December 30. No more letters in the land of…
It was ill-judged of the Department of Housing to produce a video tutoring young people how to behave if they have to move back into the parental home. And rightly, it had to be withdrawn when it produced a stream of negative feedback – including rebounding on the young people who were featured on the…
It is hardly a contested statement to suggest that Donald Trump is not a universally-loved President of the United States. Polls carried out in Continental Europe show him to have very low likeability ratings: 77% of the French have an unfavourable view: 79% of the Germans, ditto. In Spain, his unfavourability rate rises to 80%…
The 30th anniversary of the 1995 divorce referendum has been recently commemorated, with, naturally, those opposed to divorce cast as the baddies. Yet it’s interesting to note how rare divorce or marital separation has been among Ireland’s political leaders. In a readable new book charting the lives and careers of the sixteen Irish Taoisigh over…
Historians, and the world in general, have been in agreement that Adolf Hitler was a bad man who committed heinous deeds. But now that his DNA has been analysed (from a scrap of fabric stained with his blood found in his bunker), there are fresh speculations as to whether his disabilities, rather than his choices,…
It’s ironic how the course of events sometimes unfolds, and how change often brings unintended consequences. When the contraceptive Pill was introduced in the 1960s, it prompted a huge debate about the ethics – and side-effects – involved. As everyone knows, this culminated in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, in which Pope Paul VI, against…
It was hardly unexpected that the Grand Masters of the Orange Order of Ireland, England and Scotland would protest to King Charles about his recent visit to Pope Leo – in their eyes committing the grave transgression of praying with the Pontiff. The Orangemen reprimanded the King for his ecumenical gesture, and rather impertinently directed…