Cecilia Ahern always has interesting themes for her novels, and her new book Freckles is based on a lofty moral ideal. It was, she says, inspired by the expression that “you are the average of the five people you spend most time with”; so she decided to create a character, Allegra, whose ambition is “to…
The View One of the pleasures of an older family house is that occasionally one may go rummaging in drawers, boxes and old suitcases and find something interesting, unusual or exciting. Two weeks ago, I pulled a small painting on a wooden block out of a drawer. It depicted a winter scene in the Dutch…
Letter from America Mark Pattison The United States last declared war nearly 80 years ago in the conflict known as World War II. Afterward, there were several wars fought that weren’t declared as such. Some ended successfully from a military standpoint: the 1983 invasion of Grenada, a 135-square-mile island in the Caribbean that was set…
In the 2010’s, the term ‘woke’ became a popular word, implying political and social awareness, although critics say the term signals a sort of pretentiousness or elitism about one’s understanding of any given issue. In his new book, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, Rod Dreher – author of the New York Times…
Recently at a workshop, a woman shared her anxiety about the death of her brother. Her older brother had died from the Covid virus before there were vaccines for it, and had died because he had dangerously exposed himself to catching the virus. However, he had exposed himself to that danger for a worthy reason.…
Some of the readers of this column might remember a band called Milli Vanilli which caused quite a music controversy. In 1990 the duo of Rob and Fab exploded on to pop music scene. They had five big hits, including three number one songs. Then it was discovered that they weren’t really singing on their…
And so Irish fertility figures continue to fall: statistics just announced from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) disclose that there were more deaths than births in the first quarter of 2021. Pattern of decline Births were down by 476, a fall of 3.3% from the first three months of 2020. This is all part of a…
The View I feel a sadness when I enter the chapel to go to Mass. There are so many empty seats. People simply are not coming back to Mass in the way they once did. Dr Gladys Ganiel wrote last week in this newspaper about the results of a survey by the Iona Institute which…
Is consent alone, however defined, ever enough to make a sexual encounter moral, asks David Quinn A sexual consent programme has been launched that is aimed at second level schools. It has been developed by the ‘Active Consent’ unit at NUI Galway and will include workshops for students and parents. The programme is aimed at…
Our parishes must be converted to make them fit for purpose by becoming missionary in orientation writes Fr Pat Collins CM It could be argued that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) initiated a sort of theological and pastoral revolution in the Catholic Church. While the subject of evangelisation had not been mentioned at Vatican I…
Mary Kenny
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn