The Leap of Faith (RTE Radio 1) is nearing the end of its run and last Friday’s edition dealt with water, which has long been a central symbol in religious ritual. This episode marked National Holy Wells Day (June 13) with Fr Brian Grogan SJ and Sr Helen Grealy, who is involved in the Loving…

Sometimes I have to leave the room when I think someone is going to give away crucial plot twists in a TV drama series, so have no fear that I’ll include spoilers this week. I’ve largely enjoyed the new crime drama series The Pact which finished on BBC One, Tuesday of last week. It was…

Sometimes media bias is a matter of what stories and issues are not covered. There was a rather muted coverage of last week’s third anniversary of the referendum for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. And what there was was almost entirely on the pro-choice side. For starters I couldn’t find any coverage on RTÉ…

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” This worrying phrase comes back to me every time I hear conspiracy theories being obsessed about in the media. And predictably such discussions are usually linked to obsessions about the ‘far right’. The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk) has been particularly guilty as charged…

The issue of the homeless got something of extra profile when Covid-19 kicked off, with extra efforts being made to make sure they had shelter and protection. It showed we could move on the problem when there was enough motivation. On Times Radio Breakfast last Saturday morning presenter Jenny Kleeman covered an aspect of homelessness…

I have three main go-to programmes every weekend when it comes to religious affairs. All three are on radio and all three had plenty of interest last week. The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio One, Friday) was a particularly positive episode. The show featured an important interview with Catherine Wiley founder of the Catholic Grandparents Association.…

I can see the headline now – ‘Shock! – Catholic Teaching Found in Catholic School’. This fanciful notion struck me listening to Liveline (RTÉ Radio One) last Thursday when the controversy of the day was Flourish, the Catholic bishops’ programme for relationships and sexuality education (RSE)  in Catholic primary schools. There was a lot of…

You would think that during times of national crisis we’d be concentrating on the basics, the crucially important stuff of life. And yet quite a lot of media time was taken up last week with the issue of gender-neutral bathrooms – a reflection perhaps of ‘woke’ obsessions and so many hours of broadcasting to fill.…

It’s sad I know, but one of my hobbies is collecting confession scenes from film and TV drama. I added a new one to my collection last week. ‘That’ confession scene in Fair City (RTÉ One) caused a bit of a stir. Unfortunately, I came across the controversy first and caught up with the offending…

With Covid-19 dominating the news and current affairs programming it is usually only very bad news that knocks it off the top spot. And so it was last Friday, especially in the British media, when news was announced of the death of Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh. It was wall-to-wall coverage in a way…