When most people think of Irish emigration, a familiar map unfolds in the mind. Today, the great draws are Melbourne and Sydney; in the 1970s and ’80s, it was London’s endless sprawl. Before that, the tide of Irish migration flowed powerfully toward North America, filling the streets of Chicago, shaping the neighbourhoods of Boston, and…
Fergal Horgan and the challenges facing the GAA There are countless names that spring to mind when we think of the players who have illuminated our games across the 141 years of the GAA. In every generation, in every position, the list of stars feels endless. Yet perhaps the most important figure of all is…
Author Diarmuid Johnson reflects on how the legacy of Ireland’s ancient monks continues to shape modern Europe, despite being forgotten at home “Much of the knowledge the old people once had about the local saints, the holy wells, the pilgrimages and the feast days was lost – and another version of faith has come to…
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:…