“I despise the Leaving Cert as an exam,” proclaims Ryan Tubridy. “I think it’s cruel and mean.” He says he despises the way that exams reduce books to bullet-points, while putting so much pressure on pupils and students. “There has to be a kinder way to test people’s knowledge.” Would it surprise Ryan to be…
The Irish Government is working to impose a new regime of censorship on its own people. Its proposed ‘hate speech’ legislation amounts to an unprecedented assault on the Irish people’s longstanding right to freedom of expression. Yet democracy simply cannot function if people cannot air their concerns freely, or express controversial opinions. Ms von der…
An extraordinary press conference was held right at the end of May by NASA which attracted weirdly little commentary or attention, given the topic under discussion, namely Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Anyone over a certain age will have a vivid memory of NASA (the National Aeronautical and Space Administration) from the days of the moon…
Anew pope is elected with a history of health issues, who tells people early on he doesn’t expect to have a lengthy papacy. He reigns longer than anyone expected, but eventually faces a health crisis that requires a serious surgery, and which leads many people to assume the end is finally at hand. In fact,…
Revelations of rampant sexual abuse by deceased Jesuit Fr Alfonso Pedrajas have prompted dozens of people in Bolivia to come forward with similar accusations of atrocities in the South American country, where the Catholic Church confronts a reckoning over the criminal acts of paedophile priests. An investigation by Bolivian newspaper Página Siete found more than…
Dear Editor, Are people aware of the extended abortion ‘care’ bill, tabled by Deputy Brid Smith PBP, that has passed its second stage by a narrow majority in the Dáil? If this bill becomes law, it means: Abortion on demand up to 6 months, no anaesthetic of course, as Ms Smith states that since a…
The Republic, apparently, has a national well-being strategy. To my shame, I never knew something existed until an email pinged into my inbox on June 9 from the Department of the Taoiseach telling me that later that very day the Government would publish Understanding Life in Ireland: The Well-being Framework 2023. The report provided this…
Since Pentecost, I have been thinking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the last of the gifts named is that of ‘Awe and Wonder’ also known as ‘Fear of the Lord’ (para. 1831). Here I share a few thoughts on how the Spirit can give birth to ‘Awe…
When I was a young feminist, engaging in fiery discussions with the likes of June Levine, Nell McCafferty, Mary Robinson and Mairín de Burca, there was one principle on which we agreed: this was “the personal is political”. And furthermore, we affirmed that “everything is political”. We young leftists absolutely concurred that politics was part…
Ireland and Poland are just at different points along the same path when it comes to genuine Catholic faith, writes Jason Osborne from Poland. Life in Poland is a blast from the Catholic, Irish past in some ways. An example of this is that this week Poles enjoy a day off for Corpus Christi, whereas…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Michael Kelly