Hopefully, all parties involved will do their best, and in good faith, to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol problem, and the vexatious bureaucracy involved in transporting a Marks & Spencer comestible from Cheshire to Belfast. Bertie Ahern – who brought so much to the peace process – says that with enough patient negotiation, it can…
Category: Comment & Analysis
A prelate in the mould of Cardinal Mindszenty
The Vatican response to the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen should concern us all, writes David Quinn In February 1949, the head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, Cardinal József Mindszenty, was sentenced to life in prison by the country’s communist government, one that had been put into power by Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union’s communist dictator.…
Love, not excuses, moves things forward
The excusable doesn’t need to be excused and the inexcusable cannot be excused. Michael Buckley wrote those words commenting on St Peter’s triple betrayal of Jesus. Here’s the context. Peter had betrayed Jesus in his most needy hour, not out of malice, simply out of weakness. Now, facing Jesus for the first time since that…
The intimate connection to the bog
Notebook I have lived and worked in a predominantly rural parish in the midlands for the last ten years. In that time, we have had national debates about many issues including same-sex marriage, abortion, Brexit and the demise – and possible resuscitation – of the Celtic Tiger. All of those issues and many more have…
Michelle O’Neill and her teenage pregnancy
I wouldn’t have voted for Sinn Féin in the Stormont elections and in general I am not an admirer of the party as it is presently constituted. It has changed a lot since my Galwegian maternal grandmother, Mary Conroy, joined it in the early days, soon after 1905 – supportive of its agenda of Irish…
Committed nationalists left SDLP over abortion issue
The View Things are changing in Northern Ireland. Saturday’s election results, in which Sinn Féin retained its 27 seats to become the largest party in the Assembly, and the Alliance Party more than doubled their seats from eight to 17, mark a significant moment in our history. However, it remains to be seen how significant…
A hospital deal that leaves no-one happy
The current deal between the State and St Vincent’s for the National Maternity Hospital pleases no-one, writes Ruadhán Jones The Religious Sisters of Charity acted with the best of intentions when they offered a site worth €200 million for free to facilitate a new maternity hospital. However, from the word go this deal proved controversial,…
We should take heart from reports from the US
It may take time, but Ireland’s abortion law is not settled and the pendulum will swing again, writes Killian Foley-Walsh Like many who campaigned for the retention of Ireland’s life-saving Eighth Amendment, the triumphal scenes that followed its repeal by a two-to-one margin nearly four years ago broke my heart. I looked on with dismay…
God matters, humans matter…But does theology matter?
Dr Fáinche Ryan Christian theology is an exploration of what it means to be human, and to live humanly in this world, writes Dr Fáinche Ryan ‘Top MP resigns for watching pornography in the Commons’ was a newspaper headline late last month. Comments around the culture of sexism in the British parliament. On Irish radio…
Women’s religious orders invest in synod process
The leaders of religious orders around the world are taking very seriously not only preparations for the Synod of Bishops assembly in 2023, but the whole idea of making the Church more ‘synodal’ – a place where everyone is called to prayer, discernment and responsibility for the Church and its mission. More than 500 leaders…