One of the great weaknesses of contemporary debates in Ireland is that few of them penetrate beneath the surface. Too often discussions rest solidly on ideology rather than a shared search for understanding. Take education, as an example. It is increasingly obvious that the thrust of policy in this area is to ensure that schools…

My dear mother Ann died peacefully at 3.37am on Sunday, September 22. I was blessed to be with her at the time, and while I never thought I would describe it as such – it was a beautiful grace. In the days that have passed so many people have been so kind and gracious in…

An elderly priest – long since gone to his reward – once recounted a story to me about his time as an ecclesiastical inspector. What we now call a religious education advisor, his job was to tour schools ensuring that children were properly prepared for the reception of the sacraments. On the whole my priest…

The first time I was eligible to vote was in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Marking an ‘X’ in the box to endorse the peace accord only took a second, but it remains one of the proudest moments of my life. Growing up in the North, our lives were characterised by…

If prizes for hypocrisy were going, it would be hard to narrow down a short-list these days. Politicians, of course, have always been capable of the greatest of stomach-churning double-standards and u-turns. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – citing his experience as a doctor – repeatedly told the Dáil that he was against abortion, then mysteriously he…

During his tenure as Minister for Health, the now Taoiseach drew considerable media ire for his perceived disinterested analysis of the nation’s hospitals. One satirist dubbed him Leo ‘it was broken when I got here’ Varadkar. The Taoiseach presides over a style of governance that sees ministers as bystanders rather than the people with their…

The first time I visited Jerusalem, I was an impressionable 21-year-old. I fell in love with the place. Everything about the city was intoxicating to me: the sites, the smells, the sounds, the food, the religious diversity cheek by jowl…I was captivated on my first visit and it was to be the beginning of a…

At many parishes across the world, Massgoers enthusiastically sang “Easter glory fills the sky” on Sunday morning. It was dark plumes of smoke that filled the skies above churches in Sri Lanka as parishioners gathered for the most important festival in the Christian calendar. Occasions like Easter Sunday and Christmas Day are usually occasions of…

For the believer, Holy Week and Easter is the culmination of the Faith when we mark the saving death and lifegiving resurrection of the Saviour. Even if the non-religious relegate Easter to a mere festival of overindulgence in chocolate eggs, the glory of this festival transformed our world. The Carpenter of Nazareth revealed in the…

Shortly after his election to the papacy six years ago last month, Irish newspapers predicted with rare confidence that Pope Francis was set to appoint two Irishwomen to the College of Cardinals. The would-be Princesses of the Church were said to be former president Mary McAleese and Trinity College-based theologian Linda Hogan. At the time,…