St Pio represents the quiet but courageous mission of Christians across the world, writes Colm Fitzpatrick Oftentimes, religious movies tend to focus on the incredible or miraculous events of an occasion or person, resulting in piety overkill – but one Catholic priest has decided to present the life of a renowned saint in a…
Irish people setting out from Sarria to walk to Santiago de Compostela will find the scenery through which they make their way oddly familiar. Lush and green, it could hardly be more different from the parched plains so emblematic for many of the modern Camino, and will strike many as being almost Irish. They’ll not…
Understanding religion is vital for understanding Ireland, writes Greg Daly One would think that the obvious theme of Prof. Kevin Whelan’s Religion, Landscape & Settlement in Ireland would be that it’s impossible to make sense of the Irish landscape without considering the role of religion, but this isn’t even the half of it, he…
There’s a rich vein of Catholic writing in the modern Irish canon, Greg Daly is told “It is a curious thing, do you know,” observes a friend of Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce’s alter ego in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, “how your mind is supersaturated in the religion in which…
Retreats offer a chance to spend time with God away from the pressures of the world, Greg Daly is told “The beauty of a retreat is that it is time for you to step away from the everyday and to reconnect with God and your Faith,” according to Noirín Mulhern of Knock Shrine. “I…
Colm Fitzpatrick explores the price of Irish funerals and how to curb the costs Everyone has heard the expression that “nothing in life is free”, but as it turns out, even death can be a pricey affair. With the costs of some funerals toppling into the tens of thousands, it’s no wonder that life expectancy…
Chai Brady discusses addiction, mental health, evil spirits and exorcism with Fr Pat Collins “Who do you think you are, do you think you have any control over me?” Those were the demonic words spoken by a woman in a “gruff raspy voice” alien to her normal inflection, according to Ireland’s most renowned exorcist when he had started praying to expel an evil spirit from her body. Fr…
A survivor of sexual abuse tells Chai Brady about finding healing in his Catholic Faith For many victims and survivors of abuse by priests or religious, their faith is severely tested or even crippled by what they have experienced. It’s a cruel paradox that those abused were often the most involved in their local…
The Vatican has a key role to play in acknowledging failures Archbishop Eamon Martin tells Michael Kelly Nothing has done more to damage the credibility of the Church’s witness to the Gospel in recent decades than what we tend to collectively refer to as ‘the scandals’. The abuse of children and vulnerable adults by…
Missionary lessons from Africa can’t easily be applied in Ireland, Clogher’s new bishop tells Greg Daly For years a recurring cry from Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests was that the country’s bishops were being appointed from outside their dioceses, as though they were outsiders imposed without suitable local consultation. As former papal nuncio Archbishop…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Greg Daly
Chai Brady
Michael Kelly