RTÉ claims it needs it to find a new way to fund broadcasting, because it seems that increasing numbers of people are dodging the licence fee. Thus their plan to incorporate the levy into utility taxation. The present system for collection the licence fee is not efficacious: my own impression is that it is a…

The View   Every so often, I come across a book that I feel is worth sharing with readers, and Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Drs John and Julie Gottman is one such.  The book concerns how to deepen relationships through a series of dates planned to facilitate in-depth conversations.…

The world might be all about social media, but a good social network is worth considering, writes David Quinn   Critics dismiss religion as pie in the sky at best, and an actively harmful, regressive force at worst. That is, they believe religion is a form of escapism, or else it unleashes fanaticism and violence…

It seems odd that we are asked to pay a fee for a service that many of us don’t use, writes John McGuirk   I am childless, but my taxes pay for schools. I am not sick, thank God, but my taxes pay for hospitals. Ireland is not likely to be invaded any time soon, but…

Letter from Mexico   Recently – and, many observers would say, belatedly – the Church has awoken to the reality of anti-Christian persecution around the world. The emblematic case is the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, where Catholic organisations such as the Knights of Columbus and Aid to the Church in Need have meant the…

Arrests of immigrants in the US illegally are increasing nationwide, and the result is more children are losing – or fearing they will lose – a parent through detention or deportation. On July 22, the Trump administration released a new policy allowing immigration officials to quickly arrest and deport undocumented immigrants without going before a…

Notebook   Jim and Leonie, thank you for asking me to be the priest who witnesses your marriage vows today in this little corner of Co. Monaghan which holds so many wonderful memories for all of us. By way of a reflection I want to share with you a story which was first given to…

I hear the words “Marie Antoinette” increasingly used about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – invoking the late (largely naïve) Queen of France as a symbol of privilege without responsibility. “Doing a Marie Antoinette” is shorthand for availing of every entitlement possible while play-acting at being just a simple milkmaid or shepherdess. Duchess Meghan’s latest caper…

I’m always interested in the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the kind of country we live in. The English, bless them, still think that the world should give them thanks for civilising so much of it. The Americans are convinced that no country has ever been as special as they are.…