It was the grin that got me. From a former St Dominic’s Catholic schoolgirl who is now Lord Mayor of Belfast. Róis-Máire Donnelly was about to endorse a decision to illuminate City Hall to mark “safe” abortion day on September 28. She caught someone’s eye and smiled. Perhaps it was a thoughtless moment, but given…
“Contracts or memoranda of understanding covering formation, gender equality, remuneration and the administration of assets.” This is strikingly business-like language, and not what one expects to find in the headline of a Vatican press release, as was the case when the Vatican issued a report from one of the study groups running parallel to the…
Northern Catholics of my parents’ generation had an image of Belfast City Hall as a citadel of hardline unionism. It was an imposing presence at the centre of the city and seemed to symbolise the dominance of a culture with which they felt little in common. They would hardly have envisaged that, within most of…
The trial of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts for strangling her three small children in 2023 ended two weeks ago with a hung jury and a verdict of mistrial. The case attracted a high level of media interest and a very polarised debate between those who see Lindsay herself as a victim and those who, in the…
Even if you have never watched Star Trek, you have definitely heard of Captain Kirk and Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the Starship Enterprise. Star Trek is now celebrating its 60th anniversary, which is incredible for a show that was cancelled after just three seasons and 79 episodes. The fact that the main characters…
How did I end up in Canada for my sabbatical? The answer is simple: I went to Mass in Victoria when I was on holidays there, and it was the best parish Mass I had seen in 42 years. What made the Mass so good? For one thing, the church was full for the Mass,…
Sometimes a small incident can provide a sudden insight into a big issue. Thus, I was struck by a personal dilemma recently published about having a baby. “My best friend told me recently that she’s trying for a baby with her boyfriend,” wrote a young woman to Katie Byrne, the ‘Modern Morals’ counsellor for the…
There is something poetic about Wendell Berry’s death at the age of 92, the day before the launch of the 2026 Season of Creation at a Mass celebrated in Castel Gandolfo by Pope Leo XIV. Wendell Berry, the legendary Kentucky farmer, poet, writer, and conservationist, spent his life preaching the themes that the Season of…
Our Church is more diverse than most people think I spent a week in Romania recently living with a Catholic priest, his wife and their two children. That sentence may cause some readers to pause. A Catholic priest with a wife and children? Yes. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, this was not a…
Sometimes you wonder if your senses are deceiving you. The eyes nearly fell out of my head a week ago when I saw a front-page headline on the Irish Daily Mail: ‘HSE Defends Forum with US Expert on Men Breastfeeding.’ I turned away. But when I looked back the headline was still there unfortunately, befuddling…
Martina Purdy
David Quinn
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen