For many Ukrainians living in Ireland, this will be the fourth Christmas spent far from home — under the shadow of a war that continues to shape every aspect of their lives. For them, Christmas is one of the greatest and most revered Christian holidays; however, for those who have fled the war, in particular…
American songbird Mariah Carey bags up to three million dollars every year for her romantic Christmas hit – ‘All I want For Christmas is You’. This notion made me ponder: what do I want (knowing that Christ is already a given!) The answer came loud and clear during my December spiritual reading. This included a…
On Christmas Eve, a small village was shrouded in darkness, with only the distant stars in the sky providing their tiny twinkles. At that time, in the 1980s, electricity was very limited in our remote village. There was only one electric light, in the living room. We lit small candles in our yard, which was…
The Syro-Malabar Catholic rite, a rite that has a tradition for almost 2000 years, dating back to the apostle Thomas, who evangelised people in the sub-continent around 52 AD. The Syro – Malabar community is a proud one, and wherever they go around the world, they bring their traditions (in a smaller package) with them,…
Spare a thought for the people of Denmark, who are posting their last Christmas cards, in this year of 2025. For, after a catastrophic fall in the sending of letters and cards via the postman, Denmark is bringing an end to its traditional postal service on December 30. No more letters in the land of…
Every Christmas I am struck again by how unstructured the first Christmas really was. Our Nativity scenes are tidy and serene, but the reality was far more fragile. There was no priest, no sanctuary, no official ritual. God entered the world without the religious structures we normally consider essential. The beginnings of salvation were entrusted…
Do They Know It’s Christmas has a fond place in my heart. I was a new graduate in 1984, and Bob Geldof’s righteous anger was intoxicating. Buying the single and watching Geldof brute force it into the charts felt inspiring. Band Aid, and its charity single, was, of course, followed by Live Aid in July…
At the invitation of the Abbess and Benedictine community, some twenty Presentation Sisters from different parts of Ireland were hosted for a very special weekend in Kylemore Abbey in Connemara from November 13 to 16, 2025. This retreat was a gift from the Benedictine community as an expression of gratitude for the immense contribution of…
An invitation to a pre-Christmas musical arrived through the letterbox and I hesitated. It was for a student production of The Sound of Music. The film was first adapted for the screen sixty years ago, and I already knew every song, every line, every part, as if I had been rehearsing for a thousand years.…
It strikes me sometimes that a lot of people are incapable of holding two or more competing ideas in their head at the same time. Or that many are unwilling to do so. I had an exchange recently with RTÉ Director General, Kevin Bakhurst, at an Oireachtas Committee, over RTÉ’s decision to boycott the Eurovision…
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen