A recent announcement by The Pillar, a US online Catholic publication, caught my eye. It already offers what it calls ‘indefinite maternity leave.’ It keeps paying for maternity leave until the mom is ready to return to work. It is now going to commit to paying 75% of all employee family adoption costs, and of…
At the time of writing it looks like it’s going to be President Connolly in Áras an Uachtaráin for the next seven years, though there may be a late surge of support for Heather Humphreys that could surprise us all. Catherine Connolly is a sincere and principled person, I believe, and I have always found her…
Leadership is one of the most written and discussed subjects of our time. About 45,000 books on Amazon include ‘leadership’ in the title, alongside countless definitions and models. While studying for an MBA in International Business from 2009 to 2011, I examined leadership theory extensively, later deepening that knowledge through an MSc in Strategic Procurement…
Reading Robert Fisk’s posthumously released book, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East, I was struck by something he said in the whistlestop tour chapter of the last century’s history of Israel and Palestine. Speaking on this particular subject, he observed “Anyone who tries to tell what he or she believes is the…
When Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly reflects on Ireland’s missionary tradition, he sees a great line of continuity. “There was a time when we sent missionaries to the four corners of the earth,” he told The Irish Catholic. “One of the strongest things we can ask of people. Be part of our own family of the baptised.…
If you’re not free to practice your faith, all other rights evaporate too writes Michael Kelly In just four years, 2029, Ireland will mark the bicentenary of Catholic Emancipation. I write that more in hope than expectation, since the signals from official Ireland are not promising. When the Programme for Government was launched last year,…
There is a ceasefire finally in effect in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched a horrific military campaign in response to attacks on the country’s south on October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas fighters and their fellow militants assaulted Israeli settlements and fortified military outposts. They killed around 1,200 people, and over 251 others…
Dear Editor, Catherine Connolly views seem to subvert the very constitution that the President is elected to protect. She wants a third legal gender to have equal status with male and female! Our laws are based on biology – male and female. He created them, but all our laws will have to change accordingly if…
I once knew a widowed lady who was the mother of two unmarried sons. Both lived with her until the day she died in her nineties. Since they were infants, their mother did everything possible for them. She cooked their food, washed their clothes and did for adult men what they should have learned to…
It is not the worst thing to have happened in the Cathedral. After all, St Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered there in 1170, following a conflict with the King over the rights of the church. But Canterbury Cathedral, one of the oldest Christian heritage sites, has been made to look like ‘an…
Breda O'Brien
Senator Ronan Mullen
Michael Kelly
Martina Purdy