Mags GarganSheila O’Leary, retired sacristan of St Finbarr’s Oratory, Gougane Barra in Co. Cork was honoured recently as a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian order of St Sylvester. It was a fitting honour for Sheila O’Leary who gave so much of her time to the church. On December 29, Sheila was surrounded by her daughters Pauline…
Category: Irish News
Good Friday drinks ban proof of remaining Christian values – claim
Cathal Barry
The President of the Pioneers Total Abstinence Association has insisted that the ban on the sale of alcohol on Good Friday should remain in place. James Shevlin told The Irish Catholic he would “very much oppose” reversing the ban because “it is an acknowledgment that the country wants to hold onto some of its Christian…
I wouldn’t survive without God – farming icon Anna May McHugh
The organiser of the national ploughing championships, the biggest event of its kind in the world, has said that she didn’t know how she would survive without God in her life. In an interview on The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, the legendary Anna May McHugh said “God is in my life in a…
Couple prayed for daughter’s killer
The parents of one of the victims of serial child killer, Robert Black have said they prayed for the murderer, who died in Maghaberry Prison in Co. Antrim last week. In 2011, Black, originally from Scotland, was convicted of the 1981 abduction and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy from Ballinderry in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. “There…
Maynooth artwork gives ‘the wrong impression’ of Church, Archbishop warns
Staff Reporter Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has warned that the artwork displayed at the national seminary in Maynooth gives the “wrong impression” of what the Church’s message is. Noting that the long corridors of St Patrick’s College are “tapestried” with large portraits of bishops, Dr Martin claimed that most of them were “of little or any artistic…
Right to life a ‘legal fiction’ if abortion law amended
A senior Fine Gael official has dismissed as “legal fiction” the view that it may be possible to amend the Constitution to retain the general right to life for unborn children, but to allow abortion in the cases of unborn children with life-limiting conditions. Writing in a personal capacity in The Irish Catholic this week,…
News in Brief
Cork school to launch Catholic Schools Week Mount Mercy College will be the first school in Cork to host the national launch of Catholic Schools Week next Monday (January 25). Catholic Schools Week will run from Sunday, January 31 to Saturday, February 6 and is an all-Ireland annual event which invites Catholic schools to give expression in a special way to…
Golfing legend Christy O’Connor Jr found solace in faith
Irish golfing legend Christy O’Connor Jr’s strong faith “came to his rescue” after his teenage son’s death, his funeral was told on Tuesday. The 67-year-old, known for playing a lead role in Europe’s Ryder Cup win in 1989, had been on holiday in Tenerife when he died in his sleep on Wednesday, January 6. At…
Bishop Larry Forristal celebrates diamond jubilee
A celebration was recently held in Gowran Abbey Nursing Home in Co. Kilkenny to mark the diamond jubilee of Bishop Emeritus of Ossory, Bishop Laurence Forristal writes Jimmy Rhatigan. It was a happy, convivial occasion, a light and easy celebration of 60 years in religious life with an afternoon of prayer, banter and a few…
Irish-born US bishop slates ‘cowboy mentality’ gun culture
The Irish-born Bishop of Dallas has criticised as “cowboy” the gun culture in the US. Bishop Kevin Farrell, who was born in Dublin, insisted the “cowboy mentality” that existed in the US with regard to guns was leading to thousands of deaths in the country every year. Dr Farrell told The Irish Catholic that he…