“how can we demand ‘rights’ from nature?”, questions Mary Kenny Many campaigners aiming to dismantle the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment to the Irish Constitution – protecting human life in utero – now march under the banner of “reproductive rights”. It sounds such a simple demand: who wouldn’t allow parents their “reproductive rights”? But how complex…

“It’s good to see the Catholic Church laying claim to this heritage of caring for creation”, writes Mary Kenny I heard a sincere and impassioned sermon in Dublin at the weekend in which the priest spoke about defending the environment: this, he said, was following in the footsteps of Pope Francis and St Francis himself.…

It seems to me that there should be energetic campaigns to increase knowledge about septicaemia, writes Mary Kenny Sepsis, or septicaemia, is recognised as a real and present threat to health in Britain – where some 37,000 people a year die from the infection. To its credit, the London Daily Mail has been running a…

“Duh! is one reaction” to sexual activities requiring consent, writes Mary Kenny There have been some mixed reactions to the news that Trinity College Dublin is planning to subject their students to “sexual consent workshops”. The object is to teach those Freshers – mainly men, evidently – that it’s not acceptable to engage in sexual…

Unfortunately it is the turn of the Catholics to be portrayed as the ‘creepy…smarmy’ baddies, writes Mary Kenny I remember some years ago seeing a cartoon depicting a Native American father and son, both wearing the head-dress of the Navajo (or Sioux) people. They were sitting in front of a cinema showing a movie depicting…

“Contentment, I think, is a gift and an occasion for gratitude”, writes Mary Kenny What is the secret of happiness? Many books have been written in its pursuit. My Edwardian mother-in-law used to say “disposition”, and this may well be a key. Alexander Pope said as much in his Essay on Man, comparing a rich…

“it’s a sense of grittiness that you need to get through life, not just confidence in yourself”, writes Mary Kenny Psychologists these days are constantly called on to help inspire self-esteem and a sense of self-worth in growing children – David Coleman, the clinical psychologist, is in regular demand to advise parents, teachers and guardians…

“perhaps the fact that ordinations are now rarer make them more valued”, contemplates Mary Kenny Two new priests recently ordained in Galway were photographed all smiles after their ordination ceremony on the Feast of the Epiphany. Fr John O’Halloran is 38 and Fr Michael King is 39 and their stories attracted interest because they had…

“Just because you are free to offend doesn’t mean you must offend at all times”, writes Mary Kenny It’s just been a year – on January 7 – since the terrifying, and wicked, Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, when two Muslim brothers, Chérif and Said Kouachi, opened fire at the French satirical magazine’s office, killing…