Category: Opinion

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…

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.…