The View For a long time now Ireland has been battling the Covid-19 pandemic and her people – north and south – have been trying to work out the implications of the UK’s Brexit vote and the NI Protocol. It was never going to be easy. Since the UK left the European Union (EU) there have…

The View Little boys growing up today experience a different world from that in which our sons grew up. I remember teaching them to be polite, to open doors for people, to offer their seats to those who might need them etc. Now they tell me that some women interpret such basic courtesy as some…

The View The past year has been so very strange for all of us – our ways of being and doing were suddenly and utterly changed. We ceased to be in charge of our own lives. Once we were able to gather as a community of God, pray together and celebrate the great joys of…

The View Have you ever felt that perhaps you should not say what you think to the people you are with? It’s a big question. In a land in which we proudly proclaim our rights and our freedoms, we can still be afraid to say what we think, and even what we believe, because of…

The View Christmas is upon us. After a year which has been so strange, we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour, the baby Jesus. For most of us it will be, and has been very different this year. Normally on the final Saturday before Christmas the St Vincent de Paul in Ballymena…

The View As a people we had come to take our way of life with all its freedoms for granted – the right to freedom of speech, of thought, of conscience, of privacy, of family life, the right of freedom of assembly…so many rights. For many of us they just were our rights and we…

The View Have you ever felt really vulnerable, totally unable to control the circumstances of your life, knowing that you are reliant on others for your ongoing safety and existence, fearful of the future and of being a burden to others, afraid that you are perceived as having no real value in this complex world?…

The View As I write this we are facing into what looks like a fairly bleak autumn and limited Christmas celebrations. Governments are struggling to reconcile the duty to deliver services to save lives and protect health with the needs to protect the economy, for without the healthiest possible economy there will be major problems.…

The View A man I have known for many years died last week in our parish. He was a genuinely good man – husband and father of four children, very talented, a former vice-principal at our local grammar school, but what marked Declan Martin out was his consistent service to and care of others, and his…