Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have had far too much influence for too long, writes Michael Kelly One of the standout moments for me in the national count centre in Dublin Castle on Saturday afternoon was a brief exchange between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín. The referendum result hadn’t been called yet, but the mood…
I happened to be at one of the count centres last Saturday morning as ballot boxes opened and early tallies showed what was in store in the ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums. Looking at the results rolling in, one ‘No’ voter remarked to me that he recently read about how much funding the National Women’s Council…
When he was elected Successor of Peter in 2013, Pope Francis asked the pontifical academies to study the phenomenon of human trafficking, making the fight against it one of the first and most enduring hallmarks of his papacy. Now, it appears the Pope has set a new topic in his sights: So-called “gender theory”, saying…
After Pope Francis made remarks in a recent interview implying that Ukraine ought to raise a “white flag” and open negotiations in its ongoing war with Russia, his remarks were met with fierce backlash from both Ukrainian civil and ecclesial authorities. Speaking while making a visit to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish of Saint George…
Jonathan Luxmoore Prominent Hungarian Catholics have defended their Church’s record on tackling sexual crimes by clergy after a top-level government abuse scandal led to the appointment of a new national president of the country. “This sin exists here, as everywhere in the world — we don’t see any specific pattern which would distinguish Hungary from…
In September 2020 Trinity College’s Historical Society, or the Hist, rescinded an invitation to prominent Atheist and religion sceptic Richard Dawkins because the “comfort of members” of the centuries-old society was, apparently, at stake. Having “read his Wikipedia page and researched him briefly” the auditor of the supposedly illustrious society, founded in 1747, stated that…
The Catholic Culturalist Dr R. Jared Staudt During Lent, we focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving in order to repent and turn our lives back to God. The 40 days of this holy season invite us to unite ourselves to Jesus’s own prayer and fasting in the desert, where he battles the enemy in overcoming…
He was in the other room when I walked in. I knew the door would be unlocked so just gave a quick tap, said hello and walked in. “Who’s there?” he asked and when I said it was me, he said that he’d be with me in minute. He walked in, carrying a mop and…
The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) was campaigning for a No vote in the referendum even though the McKenna judgement prohibits state funded bodies from spending state monies. If the NWCI was using ‘non-state’ monies as it has claimed it should publish the amounts raised, and from where and how they were spent, in…
“Thankfully, it’s not my field of expertise, so I don’t have to write about it,” I heard a journalist remark last week, in relief. He was referring to the Gaza-Israel conflict, how agonising it is, and how difficult it would be to produce a balanced commentary on these terrible events. On the one hand, the…
Michael Kelly
Eilis Mulroy
Mary Kenny