There is a sense in which anyone of a certain age is a product of Catholic Ireland, including those who react against it, but some are more formed by it than others. You can just see the indelible impression Catholic Ireland has left on them, and one such person in my opinion, is our president-elect,…
On Monday afternoon, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a call from The Irish Catholic, wondering about this week’s article! Alas, I had forgotten. For six days, I had been part of a group of forty-six pilgrims from the Dioceses of Achonry and Elphin, visiting Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of Hope. On…
A line runs through my childhood, the time before I went to Canada, and the time after. Aged five, the Troubles put paid to my Irish upbringing; but, I well remember bobbing for apples in Belfast at Halloween. It was a simple enough game, hands behind your back, trying to bite a bouncing apple on…
Who would have predicted, in 1534, when Henry VIII broke with Rome, that 491 years later, Henry’s successor, Charles III, would embrace, and pray with, the successor to Clement VII, Pope Leo XIV? What a historic moment this meeting has been, and what reflections it prompts about the course of history. Consider the long years,…
“Leaving the meeting I felt strangely flat and disappointed” I was privileged to be a participant at the recent (October 18th) pre-synodal National Assembly in Kilkenny. It was good to be there, as many people said in the course of the day. The meeting had been meticulously prepared and was smoothly run on the…
A recent announcement by The Pillar, a US online Catholic publication, caught my eye. It already offers what it calls ‘indefinite maternity leave.’ It keeps paying for maternity leave until the mom is ready to return to work. It is now going to commit to paying 75% of all employee family adoption costs, and of…
At the time of writing it looks like it’s going to be President Connolly in Áras an Uachtaráin for the next seven years, though there may be a late surge of support for Heather Humphreys that could surprise us all. Catherine Connolly is a sincere and principled person, I believe, and I have always found her…
Reading Robert Fisk’s posthumously released book, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East, I was struck by something he said in the whistlestop tour chapter of the last century’s history of Israel and Palestine. Speaking on this particular subject, he observed “Anyone who tries to tell what he or she believes is the…
When Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly reflects on Ireland’s missionary tradition, he sees a great line of continuity. “There was a time when we sent missionaries to the four corners of the earth,” he told The Irish Catholic. “One of the strongest things we can ask of people. Be part of our own family of the baptised.…
If you’re not free to practice your faith, all other rights evaporate too writes Michael Kelly In just four years, 2029, Ireland will mark the bicentenary of Catholic Emancipation. I write that more in hope than expectation, since the signals from official Ireland are not promising. When the Programme for Government was launched last year,…
David Quinn
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen
Michael Kelly