The director of Mean Streets and Silence sees his life as a journey through fear, failure, and the surprising grace found in ordinary moments There is a moment early in Scorsese on Filmmaking and Faith when Martin Scorsese recalls what he asked Pope Francis back in 2018: “Holy Father, How can a human being…
It can be hard growing up in a house full of boys, especially in one as fiercely competitive as the Kavanagh home just down the road from Turner’s Cross. Of the five brothers, Derek was the baby, looking up to Joe and Larry as they carved the path he would eventually follow in pursuit of…
I doubt if many of us have a devotion to St Hilary of Poitiers and yet, we are indebted to him for being Christians today. Hilary was born in France at the beginning of the fourth century and was elected Bishop of Poitiers in 350 AD. His time as bishop was marked by controversy and…
The former Governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, has spent over four decades inside Ireland’s penal system. Yet, more than a decade into retirement, his focus has shifted from prison walls to family homes — and what he sees now worries him just as deeply. These days, the Tipperary native travels the country giving talks…
“My thirteen-year-old son is calm and well-balanced. He is kind to people. At school, he faced a case of bullying from one of his Ukrainian peers. That boy bullied him and insulted him at every opportunity for two years,” says Siobhan. “Another Irish boy witnessed this but never intervened – he only encouraged such behaviour.”…
Halfway through a sit-down interview with the Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin, there’s a knock on door and he excuses himself to go answer it. It’s a dark winter’s evening, it could be anyone. It turns out someone found a lost kitten. It was just one little thing on a spectrum of things that…
More often than not, hurling is not just a pastime; it is an inheritance. Across the country, the GAA is built on the weight of family lines, but in the Carroll household in the village of Coolderry, those threads feel especially tightly stitched. Parish by parish, generation by generation, stories are handed down like heirlooms:…
St Oliver Plunkett was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London on July 1, 1681. He was the last Catholic martyr to die in England. What a way to go. We casually use the phrase, unthinkingly, without pausing to reflect on what it actually entails. To be hung, drawn and quartered was a method of torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of high treason in…
By Renata Steffens and Pedro Esteva The Year of Hope was marked by many events worldwide. In Ireland, it was not different, as the Irish faithful celebrated the Jubilee Year with nationwide and local events. In addition to those events, Irish Catholics saw a number of other important events taking place. Commemorating the Jubilee of…
The gift of friendship and what it means to be blessed with a friend, has taken a new meaning with the explosion of social media. We might have many virtual friends, but no virtual friendship can ever replace the gift of a real friend in life. The sad irony is that despite us being connected…
Renata Steffens