A little over a month into Ireland’s championship summer, the early unpredictability is beginning to give way to something more familiar. The heavyweights are stirring. In both codes, sides who had been questioned are now starting to reassert themselves, with Armagh and Limerick producing emphatic statements against Down and Clare, respectively. Yet alongside that return…
Discussions among experts about the impact of modern technologies on young people and children are becoming increasingly complex. A mother of three, Inna Mastiuk, tries to reduce her children’s screen time. She allows them to use gadgets for no more than three hours a day. “I have set up parental controls that allow me to…
When Charlie Guy first began to pray the rosary aloud in his van, it was spontaneous. He didn’t set out in search of a new business idea, nor to become known online. He was, as he put it, simply heading off to do a delivery for his confectionary distribution business. When somewhere along the road,…
Theologian’s 1958 warning proved prophetic, says Irish scholar A little-known article written by a young Joseph Ratzinger in 1958 predicted with striking accuracy the collapse of Catholic practice across the Western world including Ireland, according to one of Ireland’s leading theologians. Fr Vincent Twomey SVD, emeritus professor of moral theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth,…
When Isabel Vaughan-Spruce stood silently praying near an abortion facility in Birmingham, she did not expect to become a test case for the limits of public expression. Yet a few years on, her case remains ongoing, with a trial expected later this year under the UK’s buffer zone legislation. What began as a single arrest…
The annual March for Life event took place in Dublin on Monday, May 4, attracting thousands to the city centre on the bank holiday. The focus of this year’s event was on Ireland’s rapidly rising abortion numbers and the need for promotion of positive alternatives to abortion. The march started at St Stephen’s Green and…
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome! Since the very beginning of my Pontificate, I have thought about a journey in Africa. I thank the Lord for granting me the opportunity to undertake it, as Shepherd, to meet and encourage the people of God; and also to experience it as a message of peace…
Fr Brendan McGuire considers the intersection between ethics and industry Located in sunny Silicon Valley amongst the world’s biggest tech giants and startups looking to make a name for themselves, parish priest and former tech executive Fr Brendan McGuire contemplates the future of AI through a lens of faith. For the Irish native, who graduated…
For much of the past decade, Limerick’s dominance has cast a long shadow over Munster hurling. Six consecutive provincial titles under John Kiely’s reign established a level of dominance rarely seen in the modern game, with the round-robin series producing blockbuster encounters that remarkably more often than not still ended with the same outcome for…
When Bishop Donal was appointed auxiliary bishop in Down and Connor, a brother priest joked: “How the hell did you slip through?” He still laughs at the memory. Bishop Donal, the son of a watchmaker, is conscious that his time as Bishop of Derry is coming to a close. He formally resigned on April 12…
Renata Steffens
Martina Purdy