Category: News

Gardaí ‘intimidate’ pro-life campaigners say volunteers

A file is being prepared for the DPP after pro-life campaigners accused two gardaí of confiscating legal campaign posters at a demonstration in Kilkenny on Saturday. It is alleged that 10 minutes after pro-life volunteers arrived and began campaigning, two gardaí approached the pro-life group Youth Defence, saying they had received numerous complaints about their…

New books brings Lough Derg to life

Lough Derg is brought to life in Peggy goes on Pilgrimage and Lough Derg’s Colouring Book, thanks to author and member of the pastoral team Mary McDaid. “These two books have been in my head for nearly as long as I’ve been blessed to work each summer on Lough Derg and that’s a long time…

Call for empty house tax to boost supply

The Government should consider taxing the owners of needlessly empty houses in an attempt to increase housing supply in the capital, a leading homelessness campaigner has said. Commenting on reports that hundreds of properties are lying vacant around the city, Mike Allen of Focus Ireland told The Irish Catholic that efforts should be made to…

Revisiting the Alma Mater

Victoria Holthaus & Colm Fitzpatrick Past attendees of All Hallows seminary in Dublin returned to their beloved campus to celebrate their jubilee anniversaries last week. For most it has been 25, 30, 40 and even 60 years since they have been ordained but attendees still felt quite at home, as they came together to celebrate…

Out and About

Fatima centenary conference A conference to make the jubilee centenary of Our Lady of Fatima will be held from September 8-9 in the Drummond Hotel, Ballykelly, Co. Derry. Speakers include Fr John Walsh OP, Black Abbey; Prof. Fr Ailbe O’REilly ORC, Prof. of Theology in Newman College; Prof. William A. Thomas of the Pontifical Marian…

The parents of critically-ill Charlie Gard drop case

Following the decision of Charlie Gard’s parents to end the legal battle for their critically-ill child to be flown to the US, Catholic Bishops in the UK expressed their sympathy. For almost half a year the baby’s parents fought to have him transferred to the US to undergo specialist treatment. They decided not to continue,…

US bishops call for protections for young migrants

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the Trump administration to “ensure permanent protection” for young people brought to the US as minors without legal documentation. Chair of the Migration Committee, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Texas, reiterated the bishops’ support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a 2012 policy which gives recipients a…