“gay people are surely part of God’s plan too”, writes Mary Kenny

Victims of misrule and justice are more than just a quota, writes Mary Kenny

Back in the 1880s, Lord Randolph Churchill (father of Winston Churchill) fiercely opposed Irish Home Rule warning that  “if Ireland goes [leaves the Union], the rest will follow”. It has taken 130 years for that prediction to materialise, but the late Lord Randolph would be alarmed indeed to see the rise and rise of Scottish…

I suppose the experience – and particularly the conditions – of grandparenthood is different for different people. And like everything else, there must be ups and downs. I hear grannies and grandpas who complain that they ‘never see their grandchildren’ – because of geographical or situational circumstances: or because the family has moved to France,…

Christians must pull together to make common cause with a Faith under siege

As Pope Francis moves to put Mother Mary Aikenhead on the road to sainthood, perhaps it’s a good moment to consider the vast contribution that Irishwomen have made to the world’s religious orders. And I am indebted to Sr Mary Reynolds of the Mercy Order for reminding me that the Mercy sisters were historically the…

The roots of Mother’s Day surely lie in the Feast of the Annunciation

We hardly need reminding that in Italy, “la Mamma”, is a powerful figure, both in reality, and in symbol, image and metaphor. If you really want to upset an Italian, you insult his mother. The wildest Sicilian bandit has always retained the uttermost respect for “la Mamma”. There is even a civilised Italian tradition that…

A pleasant young man was handing out leaflets last Sunday, outside St Teresa’s Church in Clarendon Street, Dublin, calling on people to ‘Stand Against Media Bias’ at a protest outside Dáil Éireann this week. The slogan is “33 to 1” – because, in the space of a recent fortnight, 33 articles appeared in the national…

I was informally fostered by an uncle and aunt when I was seven, and I often feel this has given me a sense of identification with children who are fostered or adopted. Family fostering – an old Irish custom – is not quite the same as being placed with an unknown foster-family. Yet I did…