Some years ago at a religious conference a man approached the microphone and after apologising for what he felt would be an inappropriate question, asked this: “I love my dog. When he dies will he go to Heaven? Do animals have eternal life?” The answer to that might come as a surprise to many of…
Dear Editor, I read that according to a recent poll, most Americans support life in jail over the death penalty (IC 05/12/19). At its root, this perspective is based on the idea that every single person has intrinsic human dignity independent of their behaviour. It doesn’t matter if you’re a thief or a murderer; you…
Notebook My Auntie Mary was the most famous person in our family, but she attained fame in an unusual way. She was my grandmother’s aunt and had died long before I was born. I knew only two salient facts about her: she lived on North Street, Skibbereen. And she died on Christmas Day. What happens…
I’ve always loved how the Christ-child in the nativity scene is usually depicted with his arms outstretched, as if reaching out to the world. The birth of Jesus – God becoming man – is the decisive Divine intervention in human history. And yet, there is a paradox of humility and apparent weakness in the Christmas…
Lord Jonathan Sumption is a well-respected British judge and historian, who has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court. But what he now says about the increasing power of lawyers in the interpretation of the law is deeply significant. I have been much impressed, this year, by his short book Trials of the State:…
The View There has not been much publicity for the current government consultation on abortion in Northern Ireland. It closes at 11.45pm on December 16. Responses to the consultation should inform the new proposals for the provision of abortion in the North. Readers will know that law was passed in Westminster last July requiring the…
There is a scene in iconic film The Quiet Man when John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara go on a date. This being 1950s Ireland (in the imagination of the movie’s director, John Ford), they must take a chaperone along with them in the shape of Barry Fitzgerald to ensure all the proprieties are observed and…
Fr Andrew McMahon The opportunity to honour Gay Byrne’s impressive life’s work was exploited to impose a revisionist narrative of 20th Century Ireland, writes Fr Andrew McMahon In a column in the Sunday Press almost 40 years ago author and critic Desmond Fennell spoke of “the Manichaean notion of the Dublin liberals that our society…
For the vitality of our parishes we need the courage, wisdom and right judgement to forge a new path, writes Bairbre Cahill I may as well lay my cards on the table from the outset – I would take sacramental preparation out of Catholic schools. That may seem drastic, so why am I suggesting it? At…
Letter from Rome A little more than four years after Pope Francis published one of his most provocative documents, not to mention perhaps his most political, in the form of his eco-encyclical Laudato Si’, the Pontiff appears increasingly disappointed in the way the environmental manifesto been received. In two separate messages published this week, Francis appeared…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
Bairbre Cahill