The Notebook   One of the things I would love to be able to experience is to stand in the inner chamber at Newgrange on the morning of December 21, the Winter solstice. Imagine standing in absolute darkness and then be astonished as the sunlight finds its way through the channel above the entrance into…

Last week the Irish Catholic reported on the challenge by the former Abbot of Glenstal, Dom Mark Patrick Hedermann, to the negativity of the ACP. It also said that the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, was reported in the New York Times to have said that, “I could spend all my time being concerned…

As a broad generalisation, it’s probably accurate to say that on-the-ground experience of the developing world often issues a fairly stiff challenge to the way Americans think about things, including the Catholic Church. Think Catholicism is in decline? Visit much of Africa and parts of Asia, where the biggest headache is keeping pace with breakaway…

There was a fascinating debate in Britain’s House of Lords last week about education achievement and the need for young people to have access to equal opportunities. The debate was extraordinary for its breadth and depth. While everyone agreed about the need for better outcomes the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Justin Welby pointed out that…

The Fianna Fáil senator Ned O’Sullivan told The Times newspaper recently – the Irish edition of the London paper – that he had changed his mind about abortion after “having had the honour” of serving on the Oireachtas committing considering the Eighth Amendment. Previously, he said, he had been pro-life. Now he wanted a new…

Declan Ganley hit public consciousness with a bang during the Lisbon Treaty referendum of June 2008. He was one of the leaders of the campaign against it and he established Libertas as his campaigning organisation. It spent a lot of money on outdoor advertising. Ganley was immediately hit with a blizzard of questions about the…

Fr Andrew McMahon Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s latest public critique of Irish Catholics came in the course of a feature in The New York Times in early December, complied by correspondent Liam Stack. Like the majority of portrayals of Irish life undertaken by English-speaking journalists, the New York account revolves around a familiar range of clichés…

The real tragedy of sin is that often the one who is sinned against eventually becomes a sinner, inflicting on others what was first inflicted upon him or her. There’s something perverse within us whereby when we are sinned against we tend to take in the sin, complete with the sickness from which it emanated,…

Rhona Guidos Supporters of young people who came to the US without documents as children descended on Washington early this month, risking arrest and seeking attention from lawmakers during what they believe is the last window of opportunity this year to pass legislation to help them stay in the country. Supporters came from California, New…

Fr Vincent Sherlock Jack was a decent man!  The sort you’d enjoy visiting.  He lived alone – well not totally for he had an amazing connection with horses.  A man once told me that he could leave the wildest of horses in the field beside Jack’s house and within days, the animal would be tamed…