Recently, I spoke at a conference focused on the Irish Gender Recognition Act in Dublin. Much of what I said will seem familiar to people who follow my work, but I think I managed to express why gender self-ID is harmful to women rather than men better than I have before. I laid out what…
In five breathless minutes on the hallowed turf of Croke Park in 1994, Limerick’s world collapsed. They had waited 21 years. Since 1973, the Liam McCarthy Cup had eluded them, slipping through fingers and fading into memory. Now, leading Offaly 2-13 to 1-11 as the clock edged toward injury time, the famine appeared finally over.…
There is a special link between Ireland and Ethiopia, sealed, at the end of 2024, by a visit from a significant number of representatives from the Irish Bishops Conference, on a trip organised by Trócaire, their overseas aid agency. The delegation included Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly SMA of Cashel and Emly,…
When Fr Gary Chamberland CSC arrived in Dublin to take up the role of rector at Newman University Church just off of St Stephen’s Green, it was not the beginning anyone could have expected. “It was the middle of the Covid shutdown about 100 years ago,” Fr Chamberland recalled with a laugh. The Massachusetts-born priest…
Just twenty minutes from Belfast city centre, the final remnants of the infamous Long Kesh internment camp still creak and sway in rusted decay, suspended somewhere between demolition and preservation. Of the notorious H-Blocks where the IRA hunger strikers died, only one remains. Guard towers still stand watch over a prison complex that otherwise lies…
Just like Christmas, St Patrick’s Day is now associated with secular traditions. Parties drowning in green shamrocks and leprechaun hats. But the creator of the St Patrick’s Dawn Prayer Gatherings doesn’t see that as a problem. Siobhán Brennan considers it “good fun and children love it. It’s creating memories.” What she believes is that this…
As the world turns green for St Patrick’s Day, the great outposts of the Irish diaspora will compete, as they always do, to outshine one another. In Chicago, the river will glow an impossible emerald. Beneath the spires of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue will pulse with marching bands and tricolours. In Boston, Southie will…
It was the summer of 1986 when the teenage Gerry Sweeney drifted away from the sacraments. “I had been missing Mass and I knew something wasn’t right and I thought I better do something about it,” he recalls. He had been covering his tracks by getting other pals to pick up the parish bulletin. His…
By Frida Hennig and Pedro Esteva Young Catholics have responded to Bishop Niall Coll’s recent remarks about youth, who he referred to as “i-Gens”, seeking “clarity, coherence and tradition” rather than adaptability and experimentation, which can often seem fruitless. The Irish Catholic spoke to two “i-Gen” Catholics to get their perspectives on the Bishop of…
It was lashing across the Knockmealdown Mountains as we drove up the winding road to Mount Melleray. But as the car pulled into the gravel courtyard, the sky began to clear. The grey lifted, and there before us stood the great church against the wide Waterford landscape. For nearly two centuries, the monastery had been…
Renata Steffens
Martina Purdy