Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy, Life President & Founder of Focus Ireland explains that while the homelessness crisis is the worst we have ever seen, the situation would be much worse without the work of Focus Ireland. She also explains how the crisis can be ended by returning to more provision of social housing…   When I…

A centre founded by an Irish priest has been proposed as a partner in Africa’s Great Green Wall project, writes Susan Gately   Fifteen kilometres wide and 8,000 km long, the Great Green Wall is a band of indigenous trees and vegetation planted across Africa which aims to halt the desertification of the Sahel and…

Jonathan Corrie’s death in December 2014 seemed set to transform national attitudes to homelessness, but more than three years later, not merely has the situation not improved, but things have got much worse. With roughly 9,000 people homeless in Ireland now, it seems the country now has more than twice as many people homeless as…

Church leaders need a cultural shift to see the media as a partner rather than an adversary, writes Martin O’Brien   What is the perception of the Irish Churches among the secular media in terms of getting out their story? Dynamic and missionary, which are words that I would associate with an 81-year-old man, Pope…

Archives | State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives   Peter Costello reports from the National Archives of Ireland on the release under the 
30-year rule of  confidential state files from 1987    On Tuesday (January 2) the National Archive made available to the public under the 30-year-rule State files from various government…

Archives | State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives   Light is cast on the lives of others aside from politicians. For instance the career of Bishop Emeritus John Magee, which led from early distinction to eventual controversy and disaster on his return to Ireland. After many years in the higher reaches of…

Archives | State Papers Secrets of the powers that be   One of the delights of these file releases are the curious side-lights that are cast by the documents on our leaders. In the files released from the President’s office are some dealing with Douglas Hyde’s term in office as First President of Ireland under…

Archives | State Papers Secrets of the powers that be   One of the minor mysteries connected with the centuries-long Irish connection with Rome and the Vatican is the location of the grave of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who died there in exile in 1616. This must once have been well known, but by…

Archives | State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives   The files dealing with aliens contain in brief the life stories of thousands of people, some of Irish descent, who landed in Ireland either in transit, or wishing to stay, or even to become citizens. They reflect all the turmoil of the first…

Archives | State Papers Echoes of the past from the archives   Whatever the difficulties of travel between Ireland and the US, UK and Europe in the post-Great War years, they did not affect Irish people making the Second National Pilgrimage to Lourdes on September 29, 1924. Most of those going on the pilgrimage were…