The purpose of this article is to suggest that, in certain respects, the actions of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth show the influence – direct or indirect – of Italian Renaissance political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527). I had an ‘epiphany’ in this regard while attending a conference in Florence recently on the…
‘France is on Fire’ was a fairly familiar news headline during the summer of ’26 when sweltering temperatures set the perfect conditions for wildfires. We have been reading that headline again now in the very different circumstances of violent civil protest but there is an uncanny kind of resonance between the two events. Hyperbolic headlines…
Many books, articles and TV documentaries and discussions have made the point that the Catholic Church in Ireland was, in its time, too puritanical, and repressive about sexual matters. From sociologists like Tom Inglis, who wrote Moral Monopoly, to T.P. O’Mahony, who recently published Forbidden Ireland, the takeaway message has been the same. There was…
Law-breaking seems to be symptomatic of modern culture On a grey rainy Belfast morning, not so long ago, a young boy came flying round the corner on an e-scooter – and I had to swerve the car to avoid him. I thanked God I did not hit him – or rather that he did…
It is a big mistake to take on the Irish granny, but that is precisely what a State-funded video produced by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre did. You have probably seen it by now. A girl who looks about 18 years old visibly grimaces as her grandmother is about to kiss her. Granny should have…
Ireland’s latest international embarrassment is a video warning grandparents that they might be upsetting their grandchildren by giving them a non-consensual hug. The “Don’t Hug Your Granny” video travelled around the world, with the BBC, the Telegraph and the New York Post, covering it as evidence of yet another embarrassing spectacle from Ireland’s political clownshow.…
To criticise the synodal process that recently culminated in a national gathering of delegates after a five-year period of consultation and reporting is by no means to criticise the concept of synodality itself. In fact, it can be an expression of that very synodality understood as all the People of God journeying together in conversation…
Catholic schools have a vital role in handing on the faith. Are we doing enough to ensure that the teachers entrusted with this task are resourceful enough? It is widely acknowledged that while many of our churches are quieter than they once were, our Catholic schools are still full of children. For many of the…
In the summer of 2022, Sinn Féin appeared unstoppable. Opinion polls put the party on 37%, and the question seemed to be not whether it would enter government, but when. Four years later, that confidence has evaporated. A recent poll putting Sinn Féin on 22%, while an improvement on some earlier figures, tells its own…
Are international clergy delaying needed reform As Mission Awareness Month draws to a close, our thoughts have once again been directed towards the missionary life of the Church and to those who leave home and country to serve elsewhere. For generations, that story in Ireland was largely about Irish priests, religious and lay missionaries travelling…
Mary Kenny
Martina Purdy
David Quinn
Eilis Mulroy