There is an old Irish toast that goes like this: ‘May you have warm words on a cool evening’. It makes the point that words are spoken with a certain temperature. They can be warm and loving or cold and cruel. Very often, it is not the words themselves that make the difference but the…

Elaine Noonan As we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ-child this Christmas, we are reminded so keenly of the incredible challenge that the Holy Family endured all those years ago. Mary and Joseph, far from home due to the census, faced uncertainty and rejection as they searched for a place to stay.…

Senator Rónán Mullen “The people of Mayo,” Michael Ring once said, “have voted for a Taoiseach, a Tánaiste – and a Minister!” That was in 2007 when FG and Labour fought the General Election on the back of a 2004 electoral pact which they had agreed and gravely termed the ‘Mullingar Accord’. The party leaders, Mayomen Enda…

Family values? Oh, yes, the dynastic principle of following in a family political tradition is thriving. Among first-time TDs just elected are Aisling Dempsey in Meath, daughter of the former Fianna Fail minister Noel Dempsey; Marie Sherlock for Labour, niece of Labour Party TD Joe Sherlock and cousin to former TD Seán Sherlock; Grace Boland…

Last week, we held another national election. It was a case of nothing changed, utterly no change, and yet something terrible was born – and boy, it was not beautiful: Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin – a three-headed Cerberus guarding the gates of Dáil Eíreann. For all the concerned talk on the national airwaves…

Martina Purdy When Andrew Black was a boy, his mother would often say: “As long as you have your health, son…”. And he would nod in agreement.  But years later, when he became a chaplain in a Belfast hospital, having been ordained a priest, he was meeting people, who no longer had their health, people…

Is Éamon de Valera now a forgotten figure? There is no statue or monument to the political leader who had the longest and perhaps most influential impact on 20th century Ireland. Certainly, the party he founded seldom has recourse to invoking his name at election time (or any other time). And “De Valera’s Ireland” seems…

Hollywood can’t resist a good love story, but how do you make a movie about divine love and the most famous woman in the world? With great difficulty. Netflix has just spent US$70 million, making a film, simply entitled Mary. The film recounts the events around the birth of Jesus, through the eyes of Mary,…

If you wanted a book about saying Mass, would you turn to a professor of maths and computer science? My guess is that you wouldn’t — but I have come across one who writes well on the subject — and has a catchy title to his topical book to boot. How Not to Say Mass…

Boys are more boisterous than girls. Are we still allowed to say that, or has it fallen into the category of forbidden thoughts and utterances? A new study is being undertaken in the French city of Strasbourg which believes that yes, boys are more boisterous, and this is a bad thing, and boys must be…