The movie Million Dollar Baby tells the story of a young woman who becomes a professional boxer. Young, strong and physically very attractive she captures your heart as, against all odds, she eventually rises to the top in her sport. But then the story turns tragic; she is unfairly hit by an opponent and ends…
Notebook Monsignor Jim Cassin died on Friday, June 5, 2020. He was a priest of the Diocese of Ossory. Dear Jim, I write this letter to you just ten days after you have gone to The Father’s House where no doubt you have received a warm welcome from the Father himself but also a wonderful…
There used to be an equestrian statue of William of Orange on Dublin’s College Green. It was ‘alternately daubed, mutilated and garlanded with orange lilies’, according to Christine Casey’s brilliant architectural study of Dublin. It survived several explosions, but finally succumbed to dynamite in 1929. King Billy’s effigy, like that of the Bristol slave-trader Edward…
The lockdown has caused huge damage and it’s simplistic to look at it only in terms of lives saved writes David Quinn Public worship in Ireland is now due to return on June 29, not July 20, as originally planned. It’s still one of the latest dates in Europe even though our outbreak was not…
The View Last week, the NI Assembly voted to reject the imposition, in Northern Ireland, of abortion legislation by the British government, which extends to all non-fatal disabilities including Down syndrome. What the British government should do now is repeal the law which was forced through parliament last year using an emergency procedure designed to…
Letter from America The late US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. A Catholic equivalent might be that everyone is entitled to disagree with their bishop, but not to pretend he is not the bishop. Some years ago, whilst on…
Where’s the fairness in life? Why are some people so undeservedly blessed in this world while others are seemingly cursed? Why are craftiness, self-serving ambition, taking advantage of others, and dishonesty so frequently rewarded? This has no quick answer. In his book The Magnificent Defeat, the renowned novelist and preacher, Frederick Buechner, takes up this…
Notebook For some Irish Catholics, it’s hard to think of Corpus Christi, the feast we celebrate this weekend, without getting nostalgic about the beauty of past celebrations, and even becoming resentful about the almost total absence of Eucharistic processions in the life of the Church today. I never experienced Corpus Christi processions when I was…
Among the most interesting developments in neuro-science in recent years has been the study of the human brain, which can now be examined in great detail with the progress in medical technology. The study of the adolescent brain has yielded especially fascinating results. Teenagers have been scolded for lounging in bed for hours, and neuroscience…
The View When the happy day comes when Covid-19 no longer constitutes an ongoing serious threat to human life, I hope that things will not go back to normal. I hope they can be better than they were and particularly in the area of the celebration of sacraments. For example, there is one Sacrament…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan
John L. Allen Jr.
Breda O'Brien