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…
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…
There has been quite the furore over the Government’s National Strategy for Women and Girls. To me, ‘tradwife’ is the updated term for the Irish Mammy: a no-nonsense woman with traditional values, self-assured and perfectly content raising her children at home. ‘Irish Mammy’ was never exactly a term of endearment, but it carries affection and…
Many of us, as people striving to follow Christ in a busy and demanding world, find ourselves trapped by invisible barriers of our own making. ‘I’ll serve at church once my schedule clears up.’ ‘I’m not ready to volunteer until I learn more.’ ‘I’ll reach out and mend that relationship when I’m a better person.’…
I have been a religious sister for a long time, and I thought I had a fairly good sense of which conversations would surprise me. Then a young woman in her late twenties recounted in a post her recent return from her first silent retreat, and that it had been ‘the most genuinely restful thing…
A tale of two Marys, amid many faith stories. That was my experience of the National Novena at Knock 2026: joy at the vision of Our Lady, who appears above St Joseph, the layman, and St John, the priest and evangelist, and sorrow that the journalist, Mary Kennedy, during her privileged position as speaker at…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Martina Purdy