Folklore promises that those who perish on the hill at Saul, Co. Down, will skip purgatory and go straight to Heaven. After all, it was here that St Patrick himself ended his days on March 17, 461AD. But the legend was not what drew the parish priest there as he marked his 75th birthday. Rather,…

So, young people aged 16 and over, in Northern Ireland, will forthwith be entitled to vote, as Keir Starmer’s government lowers the voting age all over the United Kingdom. It’s quite probable that a similar change will be introduced in the Republic, where the voting age currently stands at 18. There’s been much discussion as…

And so the long-awaited dig at the site of the former Tuam Children’s Home, to use its proper name, has begun. It is estimated that the dig will take around two years. The purpose is to find how many bodies are buried there, to give them a more appropriate burial and where possible to match…

An obscure border village in South Armagh has just received some famous visitors: St Paul the Apostle, St Teresa of Avila and St Agnes, among others. Actually, it was their relics that visited Meigh, a little village which rests in the shadow of Slieve Gullion. It was here that Shalom World TV decided, apparently for…

They say that paper never refuses ink. As I sit to put ink to this page, I am saddened by many of the events happening in the world today. We hear of atrocities in the name of war, of murders in our homes and on our streets and of the heartbreak endured by far too…

So, do we lament, or celebrate, the fact that a thousand more Irish pubs, all across the country, are predicted to close over the next decade? Or that, already, more than 100 pubs close each year in Ireland – 150 have shut down in the first quarter of this year alone? For those in the…

Almost in the dead of night, the Government published the latest abortion figures late last week. There was no press release. Nothing was done to draw attention to the grim new total. It is as if the Government doesn’t want the figure discussed at all. Instead, the annual abortion figures were simply published on the…

I have learned a new word in time for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell, the leader of Catholic emancipation: eleutherophilia. It means a passion for liberty; but the term can also refer to a mental disorder: a manic or mad irresistible craving for freedom. This mania – a dangerous belief that…

Pope Leo, Pope Francis never took holidays. It became a pet peeve of mine. I felt that he was giving bad example and reinforcing the kind of culture where people could never truly relax. He did reduce his number of work commitments and make time for meeting and corresponding with friends in the summer. However,…