State Papers Secrets of the powers that be Capital punishment in Ireland passed into history in 1990 – having already been largely made redundant. However, in tidying up the related files in the Department of the Taoiseach two files were revealed, which are now released and which cast an interesting perspective, not only on…
The Catholic Faith is anything but in decline in Ireland, writes Amy McCann The annual Youth 2000 Christmas retreat is, for many of its veterans, the highlight of a year filled with prayer groups, regional retreats and a vibrant summer festival. This was my first Christmas retreat, and it was not hard to see…
The founder of a pioneering pilgrimage to Lourdes for people living with disabilities has died. Bro. Michael Strode died on December 27. He was 96. Dr Michael Strode, or Bro. Michael as he was called after he became a Cistercian monk in later life, was born in Surrey in 1923 and trained to be a…
State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives As a consequence of the Wood Quay affair in 1970s and the social, political and environmental damage it did, the preservation of Ireland’s complicated heritage was on the minds of many in the late 1980s. There was then an idea promoted by a group which…
State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives Throughout the late 1980s the future of the Blaskets off the Kerry coast was of great concern. This interest was focused on the Great Blasket, which was where the village was, and on the homes of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig Sayers and Maurice O’Sullivan –…
January Plea for Govt to step up and fight Christian persecution Church in Chains, a charity dedicated to action in support of persecuted Christians worldwide, called for the Irish Government to take more “concrete steps” toward action against this persecution. The Foreign Office estimated that around 215 million Christians saw discrimination and violence in 2018…
Donal Walsh’s message of life continues to inspire people, his mother Elma tells Claire Fitzpatrick Seven years ago, then 16-year old Donal Walsh celebrated his last Christmas. The Kerry teenager, having been faced with a looming sentence of succumbing to his cancer, determinedly powered through his terminal symptoms despite being told he should “prepare…
Luke Silke Fr Ray Kelly reveals all in ‘raw and honest’ book Christmas, for Fr Ray Kelly, is a very special time of year, which he always spends with family. When his parents died he would spend Christmas with his sister and her family, and now that she has died he spends it in his…
I don’t look forward to the day when I may be unable to swallow the Holy Communion which the priest will bring me, writes Kieron Wood It’s estimated that five in every 100,000 people over 50 are affected by progressive nuclear palsy (PSP). I’m a male aged 70, so I’m in the most common…
Homelessness causes terrible trauma to any family but it is hurting children the most, writes Sr Stanislaus Kennedy We can all take home for granted a lot of the time. But deep down we all know what it means. Our home is the foundation stone of our personal and family life. It is where we…