Greetings from the holiday month of July “Summertime And the living is easy, Fish are jumping And the cotton is high…” With apologies to the composer of this tune, George Gerschwin, it is the jazzy voice of Ella Fitzgerald which sums up how July feels for this pastor. It’s a lovely month in most country…
Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic has noted the Government’s intention to pay tribute to Daniel O’Connell in 2029, an intention without reference to his achievement of Catholic Emancipation in 1829. It’s best to leave the State to do its own thing. It believes it can celebrate O’Connell as an accomplished human rights activist while it itself…
Dear Editor, the recent Ukrainian ‘Operation Spider web’, which targeted airbases and military hardware across Russia in a simultaneous drone attack over several time zones deep behind enemy lines without loss of life, was a sharp contrast with how the rest of the war was being waged in the trench warfare in eastern Ukraine aka…
Should more energy be put into sacramental preparation programmes? Dear Editor, Chai Brady reported (July 10) that the percentage of baptised children making First Communion and Confirmation is declining. The Iona Institute argues that the decrease makes a strong argument for a further divestment of Catholic schools, perhaps arguing that the Church should focus on…
The past is a different country Dear Editor, L.P. Hartley wrote “The past is another country. They do things differently there.” When we look at the past through the eyes of the present we end up taking the high moral ground from societies abandonment of unmarried pregnant women to mother and baby homes to the…
I had the wedding from hell this month — or maybe more correctly the bridal couple who seemed to have been spawned there. It is probably my fault, my misunderstanding: I thought that in giving the couple oodles of time to share their story with me, I was building rapport with them, but in fact…
I’ve been taking part in the annual conference of the Council for European Studies (CES) at Temple University, Philadelphia, June 25-27. The theme this year is ‘Legacies and Ruptures: Making Sense of Europe’ and within that there’s a special focus on the transatlantic relationship. I gave a presentation on Day 1 entitled, ‘An Ocean Apart:…
Organ donation is a beautiful act of altruism Dear Editor, the article titled ‘Rescind new organ donation law says leading theologian’ was published on page 3 of the June 19 edition of your newspaper. In the piece, Fr Vincent Twomey is quoted as saying: “In the first place, it assumes, that after death, our bodies…
Dear Editor, As the worldwide Catholic family mourns the death of its spiritual leader, Pope Francis, it is important to examine his legacy on current issues. He is rightly remembered for his 2015 landmark encyclical “Laudato Si” which focused on care for the environment, justice for the marginalised and activism to save the planet. Included…
Dear Editor, Felix M. Larkin’s review of Edward Burke’s Ghosts of a Family, on who perpetrated the McMahon killings in Belfast in March 1922, points to a fascinating piece of historical detective work. It made me want to read the book. A caveat, however. Larkin’s characterising systemic attacks on northern nationalist communities, by forces of the…