Dismissing people as racists and dog whistlers will push them to the far-right

Ireland is not full, but public services are creaking and the political elite will fuel community strife if it doesn’t listen, writes Michael Kelly There’s a now iconic scene in the 1990s hit sitcom Father Ted where, after a series of mishaps and misunderstandings, the eponymous Fr Ted Crilly finds himself accused of being hostile towards newcomers…

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Giant steps needed as new D&C Bishop takes reigns

Despite enormous challenges there are many green shoots, and the process of reform and renewal is already underway, writes Michael Kelly It’s unlikely that mandarins in the Vatican pay a great deal of attention to political news coming out of Belfast, but there was a certain symmetry that Down and Connor’s new bishop was appointed…

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Sometimes State ‘care’ can be the most dangerous place for vulnerable children

It’s right to expose historic instances of abuse, but we can’t obsess about it at the expense of vulnerable children in need today writes Michael Kelly   It hasn’t been a great week for Minister Roderick O’Gorman’s Department for Integration. Although, in fairness, one could probably write that any given week over his turbulent tenure…

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Strangers in a strange land

In just five years, we will mark the bicentenary of Catholic emancipation. Four years after that, in 2032, it will be 1,600 years since St Patrick’s mission to convert the Irish to Christianity. Catholic emancipation, of course, marked a turning point in the fortunes of Irish Catholicism after centuries of brutal persecution and repression by…

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