Almost a century ago, his great great grandfather donated the land for the national monument to St Patrick at Saul, Co. Down. And now, his namesake, Thomas John Hampton is set to become the first priest in four decades to be ordained in the parish of Saul, the place where St Patrick began his mission…
By Frank Russell Each May since 1958 thousands of military personnel from European countries and beyond descend on the small town of Lourdes in the southwest of France to celebrate the International Military Pilgrimage there. This unique pilgrimage was initiated to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady in 1858 to…
Usually, when a child is born, people rejoice. Victor-Hugo even wrote a famous poem about it – “Quand l’enfant paraît” – describing the admiring circle of family and friends appearing around a new life. But in the case of an infant boy in Georgia, US, named ‘Chance’, his recent birth has been hailed by one…
As Christians there is the pastoral dimension which we are mandated by our faith to fulfil in our service to others, writes Tony Carroll It has been a difficult few weeks for those living, working and supporting loved ones in nursing homes. The ninety percent of Ireland’s thirty thousand nursing home residents who had previously…
Organ donation is a beautiful act of altruism Dear Editor, the article titled ‘Rescind new organ donation law says leading theologian’ was published on page 3 of the June 19 edition of your newspaper. In the piece, Fr Vincent Twomey is quoted as saying: “In the first place, it assumes, that after death, our bodies…
You are probably accustomed to talking about the world being ‘overpopulated’. This has been a theme in public discussions going back to the 1960s, just as climate change is now. But if there was concern in the past that people were having too many babies, today there is a growing concern that they are having…
The monsignor, with a global mission linked to Blessed Carlo Acutis, had just departed County Down when the news was announced last Friday: the young Italian would be canonised in Rome on September 7. Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo – himself no stranger to headlines due to the saga of Cardinal Ted McCarrick – had been in…
For a quarter of a century now, the ‘grooming gangs scandal’ has rumbled on in Britain – as report after report emerged about young white girls being sexually abused by older males, these being mostly from Pakistan. From Rochdale, Oldham, Bradford, Telford, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Birmingham, Oxford came accounts of thousands of youngsters, some aged 12,…
I was covering the peace process, in the days before the Good Friday Agreement was forged, there was a lot of talk about a ‘Pan-Nationalist Front’. It was a unionist term for an alliance forged by the Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, SDLP leader John Hume, and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to pursue a peace settlement. It’s…
I was unable to view RTÉ’s recent programme Housewife of the Year, because I am not presently in Ireland, and the RTÉ player doesn’t allow access to viewers outside the State. So, I won’t comment on the quality or content of Ciaran Cassidy’s documentary, which examines RTÉ’s Housewife of the Year TV contest, running from…
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
David Quinn