Catholic schools need an AI conscience check, not just a usage policy Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic has repeatedly framed AI as a question about the human person, not just a new classroom tool. Its coverage of Magnifica Humanitas has stressed when educators should say no to AI, while another essay asked who remains responsible…
The plan was simple: invite some other men to discuss a book chosen beforehand. The invitation turned into hundreds of monthly meetings over more than a decade. In hindsight, it is a minor miracle it worked. G.K. Chesterton wrote in a 1904 essay on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “The sincere love of books has…
I listened recently to an excellent interview with Dr Hannah Vaughan-Spruce who presented a hopeful vision for the future of the Church, where parishes become centres of discipleship, evangelisation and authentic community. Hannah is Executive Director of Divine Renovation UK, a ministry that inspires, connects and equips parishes to become missionary (see www.divinerenovation.org). She also…
In times gone by, most politicians were savvy enough not to attack motherhood. There was even a jokey phrase to allude to the sweetest things in life: “motherhood and apple pie”. Everything else had a dubious side, but mom and apple pie occupied a specially valued zone. Politicians of old grasped the point that everyone…
Our contributor Fr Kieran O’Mahony OSA – readers will know him through his Hearers of the Word section in this paper – was buried last Friday at seventy-five, after an illness, and the tributes that followed called him what he was: a gifted teacher of Scripture, an Augustinian who spent decades making biblical texts breathe…
The sad story of Jason Arday has at this point been recast over and over to denounce either racism or DEI. The story has, however, a wider, less contentious angle. It centres on the question of how outlier cultures, whether based on religion or race, can thrive within a society that finds at least some…
At the prayer service held in Carlow for those seriously injured by young teenagers who lost their own lives driving the wrong way on the M9 motorway, Bishop Denis Nulty said something challenging. He described the sense of shock felt right around the country, which was almost akin to that felt after September 11, 2001.…
Among the 66,911 students who received their Leaving Certificate results last week are the first cohort of students to graduate from Mater Dei Academy, Ireland’s only independent Catholic school. Founded by parents in Cork in 2020 with the vision of providing independent Catholic education in the classical tradition without Government support, the school opened with…
Earlier this month the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley, launched a new report called the National Strategy for Women and Girls: Action Plan 2026-2028. This was a follow-up to one launched last year called the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030. What garnered most attention was the part of…
The Irish Times has suddenly discovered that “Woke 1.0” was a bad thing. In an opinion piece published this week, “We reached ‘peak-woke’ in 2020-2023. Today that looks ridiculous”, Finn McRedmond looks back ruefully on the years between 2020-23 when institutions succumbed to groupthink. How very interesting. Because if we are going to conduct a…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn