A parent’s perspective   My husband’s uncle died yesterday. He had Down’s syndrome and spent his life surrounded by love, a valuable and cherished member of his family. He enjoyed his simple pleasures like his soft toys, his Star War figures and his cartoons. When my husband and I visited him some weeks ago in…

The sky is a deeper blue than before the pandemic. It is no longer being washed pale by so many aircraft contrails. In Cork, we are on the flightpath from London to New York, so the effect is particularly pronounced. The silence is deeper too, as there are fewer cars and trucks rumbling about. People…

Children’s corner   Being around family 24/7 can be pretty tough. Sometimes you just want to go and do something fun outside but that’s unfortunately something that’s not on the cards for a little while at least. However, you can create your own private, cosy space inside your own home with minimal materials. A place…

Ignatian spirituality, being ‘contemplative in action’ and ‘finding God in all things’ has always seemed a very good fit for my life as a busy working woman, a mother,and a laywoman. I never felt that the monastic model fitted well and I would have questioned those who offered it as a model for laypeople. Over…

It’s been a lovely lockdown so far. The sun has shone kindly over our pleasantly shrunken world. Life is simpler and there’s no longer any rush to school, to clubs or birthday parties. There are no weekend breaks or daytrips. There’s something pleasant about not having to decide what to do, for the only thing…

We had great plans for sacramental preparation in the parish this year some of which came to fruition and some of which we have had to set aside. We had planned three evenings during Lent for the parents of children preparing for First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion and anyone else in the parish who…

A parent’s perspective   Driving through Dublin on St Patrick’s Day was a surreal experience. Normally, the city would have been thronged with people bedecked in green, white and gold; practically every town in Ireland would have had some version of a St Patrick’s Day parade and the pubs, restaurants and hotels would have been…

We decided to triple my wife’s potential exposure to the coronavirus. It seemed like the sensible thing to do. This decision saw my wife go from working one to three shifts per week in the emergency department of our local hospital. This is on top of her normal GP work. As a doctor, she can…

Children’s Corner   I am sure you are bored out of your mind from hanging around at home. There’s no school (although for some that’s a positive), no work, and some online classes that really aren’t holding anyone’s attention span for too long. Luckily, there are plenty of crafty things you can get up to…

The past few weeks have got me thinking about Lent as a spiral journey. I’ve written before about how we learn in a spiral rather than a straight line, how we come back to things to understand them more deeply, to gain a new perspective on them or simply to be reminded of what is…