It’s essential to know what to bring and what to do before you head out into the wild, writes Jason Osborne Having just returned from a very enjoyable camping trip in Poland, I’m ready to sing the praises of this primal activity. A night out under the stars, among the trees, has an effect on…

Personal Profile Connor McCann has been involved in ministry for almost 40 years, in one form or another. Having discovered the great belonging the faith community offers, he discerned a vocation to the priesthood, before finding his vocation as a pastoral worker. I loved to sing, and in some respects I was a bit of…

Last week I wrote about the importance of good-decision making, but this week I want to turn to a topic that I feel is of equal importance: making and breaking habits. The habits you hold are likely to influence the decisions you make, but aside from this, they’ll determine the shape of your life outside…

Liam Fitzpatrick Personal Profile Doctors are often intense. Getting through medical school is a difficult task, and the work that comes after requires a strong will and incredible passion. Dr Davog McCaffrey is no exception. In what little free time he has, Dr McCaffrey works at Lough Derg, one of the toughest pilgrimage sites in…

Life is full of choices and learning how to make them is a valuable skill, writes Jason Osborne It seems a cliché to say that life is full of choices, but it’s true. Whether big or small, we’re choosing our way through life one decision at a time. If I choose to repeatedly get up…

Liam Fitzpatrick Personal Profile Irish weather gets a bad rap. Rainy and gloomy with some very short days, Irish people take pride in complaining about the climate. Father Donal O’Keeffe begs to differ. Amid the culture shock of assimilation to Korean life after living in Ireland for his younger years, he noticed one aspect of…

Europe has been wracked by heatwaves this summer, and while we’ve largely had the opposite problem, keeping your head when the heat comes is key, writes Jason Osborne Much of the continent has been subjected to scorching sun this summer, with wide swathes of Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland and more consistently visiting the 30’s and…

Liam Fitzpatrick Personal Profile Fr Yanbo Chen felt lost. Working in a job he didn’t enjoy, he turned to his faith and a few Catholic monks to provide him with guidance. The monks presented Fr Chen with a piece of paper that changed his life. “I kneeled down to prayer, and I pulled a little…

Our faith tells us that we have much to be grateful for but we rarely live as though that’s the case, writes Jason Osborne The pandemic was a real wake-up call for me when it comes to gratitude. I spent the better part of lockdown thinking and complaining bitterly about the sorry state of affairs, which…

Liam Fitzpatrick Personal profile Sleepless night-induced eyebags aside, most college students enjoy their first true taste of freedom in third-level education, seizing the opportunity to grow and develop before the ‘adult world’ whisks them back to reality. But for Michael Tierney, college caused him to “drift” from his Catholic upbringing, meaning he relied on Christ,…