Justice Minister, and possible future Fianna Fáil leader, Jim O’Callaghan made an interesting comment a few days ago when he said that our high rates of income tax are “imprudent, demoralising and contrary to the public good.” His reference to the public good was particularly interesting because he might as well have said the “common…

As a mother, I would do anything to spare my children unnecessary pain. Any parent knows the instinct to shield their child and the desire to absorb their suffering whenever possible. In many ways, this is what defines parenthood: the adult’s willingness to ‘suffer for’ a child’s good. Surrogacy, on the other hand, begins with…

Holly Cairns’s bill to amend abortion legislation in the Dáil this week has, obviously, prompted renewed debates about the termination of pregnancy. Leave aside the issue of the three-day ‘reflection period’ before the procedure, quite a few people are unsettled by the statistics: abortion in Ireland has risen from about 3,000 a year pre-2018 to…

As readers of this newspaper may recall, a resource was offered by the Irish Synodal Pathway for use during Lent this year. Baptised and Sent in Lent was presented as a “Reflection Programme” for parishes, schools, individuals and groups. As the title suggests, the resource was related to the previous Irish synodal document Baptised and…

For years I would meet all kinds of people in ‘The Green Room’ just outside the television studios. It was where BBC guests, were supposed to relax before going on air. I wondered why they called it that because it wasn’t actually green. It turns out this was an old theatre tradition, where walls were…

Gary Gordon has been Bishop of Victoria BC since 2014, having been in Whitehorse diocese (covering the Yukon territory and northern British Columbia) for eight years before that. His golden retriever brought its name Takú from a place in his first diocese. Both dog and owner were touched to hear that ‘ag tacú’ in our Irish language…

Last week I had the privilege of addressing the patrons of Catholic schools in Ireland at a gathering organised by the Association of Patrons and Trustees of Catholic Schools at the Marino Institute of Education. I was acutely aware of the responsibility involved in addressing such a gathering and I was conscious that I was…