At the heart of every institution there are frail and flawed human beings, writes David Quinn You’ve probably seen the Netflix series, The Crown, which is a semi-fictionalised drama about Britain’s royal family. It covers the reign of Elizabeth II and follows her from the time she is a young woman and will end…
In Irish politics the main parties agree on almost everything, writes John McGuirk Speaking to the Sunday Times at the weekend, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declared that the election campaign which is now underway would be “a once in a generation moment”, and “as important for the country as the campaigns of 1977, and 1997”.…
Voters are being asked to let the Assembly resume while major changes have been already wrought in the North without their agreement, writes Pól Ó Muirí Nothing happens and then everything happens. After a three-year hiatus, Northern Ireland’s regional assembly is back. It had become a running, and sour joke, amongst many that members…
Letter from Rome Pope Francis called recent tensions between the US and Iran following the killing of General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad “particularly troubling” last Thursday, warning that they risk triggering a “vaster conflict”. Escalation between the two nations, the Pope said, risks “compromising the gradual process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting…
Perhaps because Westerners tend not to take religion terribly seriously, seeing it as a private affair on par with other hobbies such as quilting or canasta, religious persecution tends to register in the Western mind only in its most spectacular form. If a bomb goes off in a church on Easter Sunday, for instance, causing…
Most of us have heard of St Thérèse of Lisieux, a French mystic who died at age 24 in 1897 and who is perhaps the most popular saint of the last two centuries. She’s famous for many things, not least for a spirituality she called her ‘little way’. What is her ‘little way’? Popular thought…
Notebook Fr Bernard Healy I always tell visitors to Rome that they should rise early on at least one morning to visit St Peter’s Basilica when it opens, because that’s when it attracts pilgrims rather than tourists. So it was that I met an American friend and her family there just as the bells were…
Dear Editor, Fr Ron Rolheiser’s article (IC 09/01/20) about proofs for the existence of God makes an interesting reading. Obviously, proof of the existence of God will not be found on a sheet of paper and so his article is flawed in that respect. God will not be found either among the intellectuals and the…
We are all products of our backgrounds and upbringings. It’s fascinating – and often amusing – to see that the older people get the more they resemble their parents in looks, mannerisms and even attitudes and dispositions. It’s not surprising that people raised in the same family, particularly if that upbringing has been a relatively…
When the history of Ireland in the decade of 2010-2020 is written, one picture will surely dominate: the photograph of thousands cheering outside Dublin Castle as the results of the abortion referendum were announced. Some participants were, literally, dancing in the streets. The picture has already illustrated the front cover of David McWilliams’ recent history…
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny