“The most fitting tribute to Martin’s legacy would be to again find that courage to cut a deal”, writes Michael Kelly The former deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was a complex man who embarked on a complex journey. From a childhood where he witnessed first-hand the discrimination suffered by Catholics in the North to a…
Category: Opinion
Martin McGuinness: many tributes but still much divided opinions
Martin McGuinness turned away from the path of violence towards the path of peace and reconciliation”, writes Mary Kenny There is little doubt that opinions about Martin McGuinness remained divided at the time of his death. Norman Tebbit, the Conservative peer, could neither forget nor forgive the Brighton bomb of 1984, which crippled his wife…
Weighing up our common response to immigration
Immigration policies must recognise the needs of both immigrants and their host countries, writes David Quinn Last Sunday, hundreds of churches rang out their bells in solidarity with refugees and migrants and in protest against racism and xenophobia. The initiative was the brainchild of Church of Ireland Dean of Waterford Reverend Maria Jansson. It was…
Martin McGuinness – a leader and peacemaker
Fr Joe McVeigh He did more than most to take the gun out of Irish politics, writes Fr Joe McVeigh Martin McGuinness will be forever remembered for his key role in building the peace after almost 30 years of violent conflict, when many had almost despaired of ever finding a peaceful way forward. He will…
Let’s hope his achievements will influence those who come after him
Martin McGuinness – the man I navigated the road to the peace process with Martin McGuinness was a tough paramilitary leader who became a statesman. It required a lot of intelligence, courage, skill and tenacity to recognise around 1990 that armed struggle, and even the twin armalite and ballot box strategy, had reached a dead…
Redoubling efforts for peace a ‘fitting legacy’ – Archbishop Eamon Martin
A fitting legacy for Martin McGuinness would be a redoubling of efforts on all sides to find solutions to “our current problems” according to the Primate of All Ireland. Archbishop Eamon Martin paid tribute to Mr McGuinness as “someone who chose personally to leave behind the path of violence and to walk instead along the…
Children of the Famine
Greg Daly explores the historical roots of the mentality that created Tuam’s Mother and Baby Home History and commemoration are, as President Higgins observed in a speech in Dublin’s Mansion House almost exactly a year ago, different things. Commemoration, he noted, is typically mediated through present-day concerns, and stands always in danger of being exploited…
Our shadow and our self-understanding
What is meant when certain schools of psychology today warn us about our ‘shadow’? What’s our ‘shadow’? In essence, it’s this: we have within us powerful, fiery energies that, for multiple reasons, we cannot consciously face and so we handle them by denial and repression so as to not have to deal with them. Metaphorically…
If it’s fake or implausible, don’t share it
Inés San Martín For a man who lashes out against misinformation, defamation, calumny and spreading scandal, even once comparing the last offense to eating faeces, Pope Francis has been a victim of several fake news cycles of his own, with one claiming he wanted to change the Ten Commandments being the latest to go viral.…
Irish people still turn to prayer in face of tragedy
Dear Editor, The loss of four good people with the crash of the Rescue 116 helicopter off the Mayo coast last week was a tragedy, and yet it was one which revealed a side of Christianity and of God that we often overlook – that of compassion. I know of no person who, upon hearing…