Nóra Quoirin was a special bearer of the Holy Spirit and gifted others with immeasurable love and joy, the priest celebrating her funeral Mass said this week. 15-year-old Nóra, who had special needs, went missing during a family holiday in Malaysia last month, with her body being found after a 10-day search. Local police said…

Gambling laws in the North of Ireland don’t take the issue of problem gambling seriously enough, which has “serious consequences” for individuals and families, a charity and former addict have said in the wake of new findings. A report examining the issue was required under the recently passed Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act, which found…

Kerry fans who want to watch the replay of the All-Ireland Football Final can attend vigil Mass early this Saturday. In a letter sent to priests across the diocese, Kerry’s Bishop Ray Browne said parishes could change the times of evening Masses to facilitate massgoers keen on watching the 6pm replay against Dublin. Vigil Masses…

An estimated 20,000 people took to the streets of Belfast on Saturday to oppose moves from Westminster to impose abortion on the North. Holding signs with the simple message ‘not in our name’, protesters heard calls to lobby their politicians in a bid to restore the assembly and executive as a way to stop the…

Grandparents can help children to understand the Faith and see that people must be valued for who they are, not simply what they can do, Elphin’s Bishop Kevin Doran has said. Speaking at the national pilgrimage of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association to Knock Shrine, Bishop Doran said that with today’s harsh economic realities causing parents…

‘Seek beauty, find Truth’ – the inspirational words from St John Paul II was the theme for this year’s Legion of Mary young adult conference held in Dublin. Those present heard that the Pontiff’s key to evangelisation was to encourage Catholics that “leaning on God, they continue to reach out, always and everywhere, for all…

A Kildare parish will join Ireland’s 14th Culture Night this year for the first time with an evening of poetry organised by their parish pastoral council. ‘Poetry to Make You Think’ will feature poems from some well-known poets including Seamus Heaney, WB Yeats, Mary Oliver, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Warsaw Shire, Emily Dickinson and Drew Dillinger.…

RTÉ star Miriam O’Callaghan has said she regularly lights a candle in her local church on the way home from her morning radio show, and prays often to the Virgin Mary. In an interview in the Sunday Independent published over the weekend Ms O’Callaghan said she didn’t always have the habit of lighting a candle,…

A German nun known as ‘Pakistan’s Mother Teresa’ has been honoured by Google with a ‘Google Doodle’ on what would have been her 90th birthday. Sr Ruth Pfau, who died in 2017, is credited with eradicating leprosy from Pakistan. Born in Leipzig in 1929, she converted to Catholicism in her 20s and was inspired to…

School
 resource 
launched 
to 
help 
homeless 
children A charity and teachers organisation have produced a new resource for primary school teachers and principals supporting students and families who are homeless or at risk, it was announced this week. Focus Ireland and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) produced the document which aims to highlight the…