Do you still address individuals as Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms (or Doctor, Sister or Monsignor)? Such old-style forms of nomenclature seem to be going out of fashion. And in tune with today’s vibes, The Irish Times newspaper has announced a formal dropping of all honorifics and courtesy titles such as Mr, Mrs or Ms.…
Many Catholics will assume that the biggest, most publicly witnessed Marian event of the 20th century, if not ever, took place in 1917 when 70,000 people gathered at Fatima to witness what has come to be known as ‘The Miracle of the Sun’. They had come there after the Fatima visionaries said that Our Lady…
In the middle of the 6th Century, in the green heart of Leinster, a boy was born who would one day leave an enduring mark on Europe. His name was Columban, later Latinised as Columbanus, meaning ‘the white dove’. From an early age, he felt a powerful call to give his life to Christ—a call…
Donald J Trump is no political philosopher, nor would he have the slightest desire to be one. As Prof. Sheri Berman of Bard College New York quipped last year about Curtis Yarvin, Trump is no Carl Schmitt. Yet in relation to his obsessive desire to gain control of Greenland for the United States, however perversely,…
Family hostilities have always attracted attention because the family is universal, and almost everyone knows what it’s like to experience family tensions. Not for nothing has the mother-in-law joke long been a stock in trade, or the figure of the heartless stepmother appear in fables like ‘Cinderella’. Unsurprisingly, then, the saga of Brooklyn Beckham, first-born…
In the eve of February 1, when winter loosens its grip and the first promise of spring stirs beneath the soil, Ireland turns once more to St Brigid. For centuries, her presence has been felt most strongly on this night—the threshold between darkness and light, between the old season and the new. St Brigid, Ireland’s…
This week’s guest on EDUCATION NATION Jonathan Tiernan, CEO of the Jesuit Education Trust provides a clear-eyed assessment of what lies ahead for Catholic schools should we fail to capitalise on the opportunities before us or if we do not respond adequately to the challenges of the next ten years. He suggests that “the concept…
Strangely the Beckham saga recapitulate the Royal Household turmoil of 2022 when Harry, Duke of Sussex and his rich, glamorous American wife, Meghan Markel, stepped back from royal duties to the consternation to the Firm. They then emigrated to California, where he dug the knife in deeper during a soft Oprah Winfrey interview and a…
As a woman named Breda, one of the many diminutives of Brigid, I feel protective of my patron. I have no problem with people who prefer to venerate the goddess Brigid, but I do wish they would also give due respect to Brigid the saint. The narrative that St Brigid is merely a Christianised, inferior…
One of the things that can make politics tricky is the use of ‘bait and switch’ tactics by activists in and out of government. In the commercial world, ‘bait and switch’ means the act of advertising goods as an apparent bargain, while intending to substitute lower quality or dearer goods all the while. The ‘bait’…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen