The Notebook I was recently in Lourdes on pilgrimage with a number of my Dominican brethren and 86 fellow pilgrims. As readers of my column, you are well aware that this year we are marking the 800th anniversary of our Dominican presence on this island. Given the year that is in it I have been…
It’s hard to make any certain calls about American politics these days with something new and dramatic seeming to happen every time you turn on the news, but at the moment it looks like the presidential election will be fought between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Vice-President. In the last few weeks, we have…
The late comedian, Robin Williams, once joked that politicians should be like professional sports stars: “They should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.” It is a good joke, and it’s not hard to imagine politicians with such badges on blazers. Even so, there are still noble men and women in…
It’s not unusual – when a person passes the milestone of 80 years of age – to ask what they celebrate and what they regret over the passage of their lives. Vincent Browne, the legendary publisher, editor, journalist, and inquisitorial broadcaster who, in his time, made politicians quake in their shoes, says that his greatest regret…
The suffering of the victims and survivors of Northern Ireland’s conflict was very much compounded by the passing last year of the NI Legacy (Troubles and Reconciliation) Act, which was forced through parliament despite the united opposition of all the political parties in Northern Ireland, the vast majority of Troubles victims throughout the UK, most UK…
I was sad to have upset Mary Stewart, who wrote a letter recently to this newspaper expressing disappointment that I said that there was not now a single reason to vote for Donald Trump. I admire how for many years, Mary Stewart kept the pro-life flag flying almost single-handedly in the letters column of The…
Letter from Rome Since unveiling a new set of norms for evaluating the validity of alleged Marian apparitions and other spiritual phenomena two months ago, the Vatican has put out rulings on several cases, recently approving devotion to two popular Marian appearances in Italy. In mid-May, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith…
Notebook It was All-Ireland Sunday 2001 – Meath vs Galway. There are two men I am remembering today, one was in the thrust of the action, the other watching from his hospital bed. One of them died within days of the final, the other in recent weeks. Tim Fitzmaurice, a Roscommon Man was in hospital,…
Personally, I would not have refused Holy Communion to Fine Gael politician and Junior Minister, Colm Burke, if I were a priest or eucharistic minister. Nonetheless, Fr Gabriel Burke, the priest who did refuse Deputy Burke communion, has prompted a necessary debate on who should receive communion and when, because the attitude to the receipt…
Dean Keating These recent elections were not the parting of the fog that many had hoped for or the endorsement of Government that the Taoiseach has claimed. At best, we can see a stagnation for all three major parties and a diversification of the Irish political spectrum, caused by a rejection of the Government’s more…
David Quinn
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
Breda O'Brien