Dear Editor, With the recent awards season (Oscars, BAFTAs etc.) I propose we strike a medal and award it to The Irish Catholic TV/radio critic, Brendan O’Regan. His tireless dedication in having to listen to hours of guff, propaganda and filth that most of our broadcasters spew out on the airwaves, deserves some recognition. Recently…

Dear Editor, How wonderful to read your report that male classroom assistants are having a positive influence on the exam results achieved by boys in St Paul’s High School in Bressbrook, Co. Armagh (IC 10/03/2016 ‘Classroom ‘father figures’ behind exam results boost’). It reminded me of the phrase ‘one good adult’ and the positive influence…

Dear Editor, The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has issued proposals for a curriculum titled ‘Education about Religions & Beliefs & Ethics’ (ERBE), to be made compulsory in all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. ERBE claims a pluralist and objective approach to the main theist, non-theist and secular beliefs. Such an…

Dear Editor, Dr Eamon Phoenix’s dismissal as “simplistic” attempts to link the Rising centenary with dissident violence in the North (IC 10/03/2016) is both reassuring and persuasive. Even in 1966, at a time when Catholics in the North were denied some basic civil rights, the Rising’s 50th anniversary provoked little republican violence, the destruction of…

Dear Editor, We are only a few months into the ‘Year of Mercy’, but I think it is already safe to say that it has been a huge success. So many other special years have passed with little effort being made in the Irish Church to publicise or mark them in anyway. This jubilee year…

Dear Editor, As Mother Teresa is to be canonised this September and with the forthcoming threat to the Eighth Amendment in Ireland, it is timely to remind people what she said in the Noble Lecture having been awarded the Noble Peace prize in 1979. “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because…

Dear Editor, While it is right to comment and praise the good things a TD has done for his/her community, such as Mary Kenny’s praise of Jimmy Deenihan (IC 03/03/2016), given that he voted for the 2013 abortion act, does this not now undo those good works, since abortion is never good for community nor…

Dear Editor, In his article following on from his trip to Los Angeles (IC 25/02/2016), I think that Michael Kelly is missing a critical point when he writes of the “vibrant” liturgies that he experienced in his visit. A key contributor to this environment of vibrancy and life is the strong connection of the families…

Dear Editor, This new Education about Religions and Beliefs and Ethics (ERBE) programme being introduced into primary schools, will expect little children to explain and defend their faith, something well educated adults have difficulty with in our present secular surroundings.  It is however much worse than that. All religious beliefs will be viewed through secular/atheist…

Dear Editor, I was relieved to read in last week’s The Irish Catholic of the strong pro-life presence Fianna Fáil will be bringing to the new Dail. For years now, people who hold pro-life views have been neglected by politicians, even those in Fine Gael who actively courted our vote in the previous election and…