It is the finest sort of autumn morning. The sun shines kindly upon the apple trees, their boughs now heavy with fruit. Clusters of ripe apples gleam red against pale blue skies. The leaves of the beech and sycamore are already turning a golden brown. Yet the ash trees stand defiantly green, in a willful…
Youth Space Youth 2000 retreats are a time for spiritual reflection and growth, Grace Masterson writes If you’re between the ages of 16 and 35 and haven’t been to a Youth 2000 retreat yet…GO! I remember two years ago when I went to my first Youth 2000 retreat, which happened to be their annual summer…
Everyday Philosophy Tribalism in politics and ethics is an easy thing to criticise. By ‘tribalism’ I’m specifically talking here about tribalism about opinions: changing your beliefs in order to better conform with a group that you identify with in some way. This criticism is mostly right: I think this sort of tribalism is usually bad.…
Don’t give up on dating when you’re older, it might just save your marriage, writes Colm Fitzpatrick “Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way,” the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once remarked. While this quip was written to shed…
Sweet Treats This is a wonderfully moreish chocolate cake, the sharpness of the dark chocolate is complemented perfectly with sweet bursts of juicy pears that are right in season this time of the year. It is a really easy recipe to whip up if you have a couple of pears getting overripe in your fruit…
Feel the buzz in Sligo With a modern awareness of how important bees are for our ecosystems to thrive, perhaps it’s time to learn more about these fascinating creatures. If you’re interested to find out about the ins-and-outs of beekeeping, look no further than Sligo where trained farmer Ailbhe Gerrard can show you the ropes.…
Youth Space We can open up a space to help people encounter God, writes Gerard Hanley “I’d like to believe in God but he’s probably not real”. This is how I expressed my faith to a friend when I was 13-years-old. I was setting myself up for a life without God. I hadn’t seen,…
Well so far the feet look fine and the hips are still working! Danny and I are four days and about seventy kilometres into the Camino de Santiago. We are also celebrating our twenty sixth wedding anniversary today. So what profound reflections have come to me as we walk through woodlands and vineyards, up boulder-strewn…
Parents should be the first educators when it comes to sex, writes Colm Fitzpatrick Most people find broaching the topic of sex uncomfortable and for many parents this awkwardness is only heightened when discussing the subject with their children. ‘The Talk’ as it’s euphemistically phrased, denotes the time in your child’s life when you…
For much of the past decade, my wife’s medical training has dragged our family around Ireland and Britain. We have moved house 11 times in 10 years, through Cork, Dublin, Surrey and the Isle of Wight. Thankfully, our nomadic existence is at last coming to an end, as we settle back into where we began,…
Rory Fitzgerald
Ben Conroy
Colm Fitzpatrick
Bairbre Cahill