In virtually all of his novels, Milan Kundera, manifests a strong impatience with every kind of ideology, hype, or fad that makes for group-think or crowd-hysteria. He is suspicious of slogans, demonstrations, and marches of all kinds, no matter the cause. He calls all these the great march and, to his mind, they invariably lead…
Notebook It was St Stephen’s morning and I was in the sacristy for morning Mass. As I got ready, I asked one of the altar servers if he had an enjoyable Christmas Day. I had follow-up questions as well: “What did you get from Santa?” Is that what you wanted?” Even more questions, if needed,…
As a new party, Aontú did well in the Derry constituency of Foyle for the UK General Election: Anne McCloskey got over 2,000 votes and saw an increase in support for her party. Yet, in terms of the overall political picture, it’s surely also a welcome development that the SDLP, which had been wiped off…
The View I love Christmas. No ‘bah, humbug’ for me. Of course, it is much easier to love Christmas when you have been greatly blessed by having a family, a roof over your head and enough to live on. So many people do not even have the basics of life. As a child, there was one…
It’s unlikely that your children or grandchildren will keep going to Mass unless some of their peers are doing so as well, writes David Quinn It is now coming up to seven years since the start of this papacy. What has changed in the Church in the meantime? The main thing is probably tone. The…
Some years ago at a religious conference a man approached the microphone and after apologising for what he felt would be an inappropriate question, asked this: “I love my dog. When he dies will he go to Heaven? Do animals have eternal life?” The answer to that might come as a surprise to many of…
Notebook My Auntie Mary was the most famous person in our family, but she attained fame in an unusual way. She was my grandmother’s aunt and had died long before I was born. I knew only two salient facts about her: she lived on North Street, Skibbereen. And she died on Christmas Day. What happens…
Lord Jonathan Sumption is a well-respected British judge and historian, who has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court. But what he now says about the increasing power of lawyers in the interpretation of the law is deeply significant. I have been much impressed, this year, by his short book Trials of the State:…
The View There has not been much publicity for the current government consultation on abortion in Northern Ireland. It closes at 11.45pm on December 16. Responses to the consultation should inform the new proposals for the provision of abortion in the North. Readers will know that law was passed in Westminster last July requiring the…
There is a scene in iconic film The Quiet Man when John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara go on a date. This being 1950s Ireland (in the imagination of the movie’s director, John Ford), they must take a chaperone along with them in the shape of Barry Fitzgerald to ensure all the proprieties are observed and…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan