Just released in Irish cinemas, The Lost Children of Tuam tells the story of the local historian Catherine Corless and her investigation into the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. Few need an introduction to the story, more than a decade on from the initial burst of international media coverage about Tuam. Even…
The development of the Catholic bishops’ ‘Living Love’ resource for primary and secondary schools has something important to teach us about what meaningful consultation looks like. ‘Living Love’ was developed by the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference to support the delivery of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum. A ‘final draft’…
In recent years there has been enormous sympathy in Ireland for the Palestinians in Gaza and many Catholic commentators in Ireland and abroad have adopted an anti-Israel position that can lead to anti-Judaism and antisemitism. Their rhetoric often vilifies Israel’s actions while minimising or ignoring the existential threats the country has faced since its founding,…
When Pope Leo XIV arrived in the City of Lights, in the country once known as the “eldest daughter of the Church,” he was not met by screaming hordes exclaiming with fury, “Écrasez I’infâme!”—often translated as “crush the loathsome thing.” Indeed, this phrase was directed mostly at the Roman Catholic Church by the Jesuit-educated firebrand…
I was one of several survivors recently invited to attend and offer a reflection at ‘A Moment of Solidarity with Victims and Survivors of Abuse’ in Co. Kildare. The event was organised by Towards Peace, which provides free spiritual direction and accompaniment to people who have experienced physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual abuse within a…
Looking back over the past three weeks of Oireachtas hearings on the three-day wait, one thing stands out above everything else for me. It isn’t the political manoeuvring, the carefully managed hearings or even some of the extraordinary exchanges at the Health Committee. It is the women. Over recent months, I have gotten to know women…
In the latest episode of Education Nation, I sat down with Peter Admirand, Associate Professor and director of the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue at Dublin City University. As debates intensify around patronage, governance, curriculum reform, and the future of Religious Education (RE) in Irish schools, Admirand offers a compelling personal, and experience-driven case for why…
Dear Editor, With reference to Roisín Coll’s article: ‘A cup of tea and an open door’, September 24. We have for years attended Mass one Sunday each year in a parish in Saumur, France. Last Sunday more than 50% of the congregation was “youngish.” The place teemed with young parents and children. Since COVID the…
Our kind bishop, Michael Duignan, once asked us: “Where and when in your ministry did you feel most happy and fulfilled?” Immediately my mind flew back over the years and miles to the Philippines, where I served as assistant director of formation in a seminary. There were only three of us on the full-time staff,…
Now we come to a subject which is both personal and public, individual and political; impolite to mention and yet relevant to perception and communication. And possibly linked, also, to vanity. This concerns a person’s – most often a woman’s – face. It is a matter of obvious commentary that the Leader of the Opposition,…
Eilis Mulroy
Mary Kenny