I was one of several survivors recently invited to attend and offer a reflection at ‘A Moment of Solidarity with Victims and Survivors of Abuse’ in Co. Kildare. The event was organised by Towards Peace, which provides free spiritual direction and accompaniment to people who have experienced physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual abuse within a…
Looking back over the past three weeks of Oireachtas hearings on the three-day wait, one thing stands out above everything else for me. It isn’t the political manoeuvring, the carefully managed hearings or even some of the extraordinary exchanges at the Health Committee. It is the women. Over recent months, I have gotten to know women…
In the latest episode of Education Nation, I sat down with Peter Admirand, Associate Professor and director of the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue at Dublin City University. As debates intensify around patronage, governance, curriculum reform, and the future of Religious Education (RE) in Irish schools, Admirand offers a compelling personal, and experience-driven case for why…
Now we come to a subject which is both personal and public, individual and political; impolite to mention and yet relevant to perception and communication. And possibly linked, also, to vanity. This concerns a person’s – most often a woman’s – face. It is a matter of obvious commentary that the Leader of the Opposition,…
Last month, Catholic Education Partnership (CEP), working with the Irish Bishops’ Conference, launched Living Love Senior, an SPHE/RSE programme for the new Senior Cycle Leaving Certificate curriculum. And, it is a triumph. Those involved deserve huge credit, not only for the programme’s quality, but for producing it within the current deplorable state of education in…
Pope steals the hearts of the French Jacques Hébert was one of the most anti-clerical figures of the French Revolution. Hébert and his faction led the anti-Christianisation campaign that reached its peak in Paris in 1793. The campaign closed churches, persecuted priests who would not swear loyalty to the Revolution and converted some churches…
A leading politician – who once claimed he was indoctrinated at his Catholic grammar school – has been spearheading a highly controversial bill in the north of Ireland. Eoin Tennyson, an Alliance Party MLA at Stormont, wants to ban conversion practices related to sexuality or gender. Some time ago, Mr Tennyson, a gay man, shared…
The now-ubiquitous terms “reproductive health” and “reproductive freedom” have contributed mightily to a slaughter of the innocents in these United States. The death toll from that massacre is now greater than the estimated 60 million civilian lives erased by area bombing, genocide, starvation, and disease during World War II. If the victor of D-Day, Dwight…
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict grew from two national movements – Jewish Zionism and Palestinian Arab nationalism – seeking security and self-determination in the same land. Antisemitism and the Holocaust are essential to understanding Jewish support for a state of their own; Palestinian displacement, statelessness and military occupation are equally important to understanding Palestinian attitudes. Both histories…
For much of Ireland’s history, faith and culture were deeply intertwined. Church buildings stood at the centre of communities, Catholic schools shaped generations, and participation in religious life was often seen as a normal part of Irish identity. Today, however, Ireland finds itself in a very different place. Church attendance has declined, religious practice can…
Eilis Mulroy
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Martina Purdy
George Weigel