Category: Features

Stressed out

RóiseMcGagh looks at what stress really is and the impact it can have on your body and mind.   “I am so stressed.” A statement you might flippantly repeat to yourself on the daily or consistently remind friends and family of. But what does it really mean to be stressed, and what kind of effect…

It is only in giving that we receive

Personal Profile   “There is great joy and fulfilment in being interested in and touching the lives of other people in some small way, however small. ‘It is in giving that we receive’,” says Anita McTernan, a volunteer nurse in a Sisters of Mercy, Mission Hospital in Mutomo, Kenya. Anita is not a Sister of…

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Everyday Philosophy   I’ve been thinking a lot about art lately. I’ve been catching up on the excellent Risking Enchantment podcast, which discusses beauty in art and culture and its place in the Catholic faith. And I recently had the privilege of hearing the art historian Elizabeth Lev talk about Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings. I…

The other side of beauty

Leah Darrow, once an America’s Next Top Model contestant (2004), looks beyond physical beauty in an extract from her new book. My decision to audition for America’s Next Top Model wasn’t exactly well thought out. In fact, I had only watched a few minutes of the previous cycle before I decided to audition in St…

Brigid Birney: discovering religious art

Birney has always loved painting. Since she was young, she recalls feeling excited in the art section of a shop and asking for paints for Christmas. “Every Christmas my Santa letters would have been paints and brushes and art stuff,” she tells The Irish Catholic. Just recently Brigid’s work was beamed up onto the front…

The other side of St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick, the most famous of the Patron Saints of Ireland worldwide. Not quite hailing from Ireland himself but from the United Kingdom, he is credited with driving the ‘snakes’ out of Ireland. Or bringing Christianity to the Island and pushing out Paganism if you’d like to be more literal. One might wonder if he…

Spring Clean for the new decade

Roise McGagh reveals eleven tips on making your spring clean a breeze It might not really feel like spring at the moment, with the only hint being brighter evenings. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time of year to clear out the cobwebs and declutter. You’ve made it through a gloomy January and most…

Working in the healing industry with Fr Conlon

Personal Profile “I work in the healing industry.” “It all began in Bundoran I suppose around 1985,” says Fr Noel Conlon. People would call to him and he would pray with them. Word quickly spread around the area, and “nearly overnight there was an awful crowd coming,” he tells The Irish Catholic. Fr Conlon, known…