Narrating the past is really about controlling the present direction, writes David Quinn Is it a good or a bad thing to be nostalgic about the past? If the latter, then the Irish need not worry, because we are one of the least nostalgic countries in the world about our history according to a new…
The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow is over and has widely been received as not having delivered enough. Climate activist Greta Thunberg lambasted the talks as a “failure”, echoing the sentiments of many commentators since the conference’s close. Climate fight The perceived failure of humanity’s ‘last, best hope’ in the climate fight is unlikely to…
Letters from Rome T.S. Eliot may well be the greatest of all American poets, and his 1925 poem “The Hollow Men” contains perhaps the most-quoted lines of any 20th century American literary work, usually by people who have no idea where the lines come from: “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang…
Our greatest strength is often our greatest weakness. Sensitivity is a gift, but as any sensitive person will tell you, that gift can be a mixed blessing. Sometimes a thick, calloused skin can save you from a lot of suffering, particularly from heartache. The popular spiritual writer Henri Nouwen was a highly sensitive person. That…
On Sunday last, the feast of Christ the King, I had the honour of celebrating the annual Mass for deceased members of the Dublin Fire Brigade. It was a pleasure also to welcome Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Alison Gilliland, to our church for the occasion, but it was far from the first encounter between the mayor…
Dear Editor, Garry O’Sullivan’s shocking article on the recent Killala ‘assembly’ affirms the fact that votes were taken that showed majorities in favour of questioning Catholic doctrine on the sacraments of Holy Orders and Matrimony, and on sexual ethics, and indeed on the very structure of the Church itself. This questioning aims at significant and…
We have tested and tasted too much, lover- Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder. But here in the Advent-darkened room Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea Of penance will charm back the luxury Of a child’s soul, we’ll return to Doom The knowledge we stole but could not…
Dara Ó Briain is surely one of the most successful of Irish comedians, mostly living and working in Britain, though currently on tour in Ireland. He’s the genial but sharp host of the hugely engaging Mock the Week satirical programme on BBC. Dara is also an award-winning debater and a brilliant mathematician who has partnered…
Recently, I came across the beautiful Litany of Trust for the first time. It was written by Sr Faustina Maria Pia Bianchi S.V., a member of the Sisters Of Life, an order founded by Cardinal John O’Connor in 1991 to uphold a culture of life. This modern-day Sr Faustina was given the name at Baptism,…
The migrant crisis at the Poland-Belarus border is the latest instantiation of people being used in an authoritarian power-play, writes Jason Osborne from Poland Recent weeks have seen thousands of migrants driven to the Polish-Belarusian border by the authorities in Belarus, prompting the chairman of the Polish bishops’ conference’s urgings that the Faithful “pray fervently”…
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien