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…

I could probably fill the whole paper with reviews of all the religious programmes on over the Easter season – the media tend to put in an extra effort at Easter. RTÉ’s coverage of the ceremonies was impressive. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper (RTÉ One) on Holy Thursday was a memorable event. Fr Martin…

It was a great sign of hope to see churches opening for Mass in the North on Friday. Newsline (BBC One NI, Friday) reported from a lunchtime Mass at St Mary’s Church in Belfast describing it as “a small landmark along a difficult journey” – an understatement! One churchgoer said it was “the most important…

St Patrick’s Day dominated last week and it has been the second Covid version – never thought that would happen! It was also the one-year anniversary of weekday Masses on the RTÉ News Now channel, as Fr Michael Toomey pointed out last Friday when saying Mass from Ardfinnan. This has been a brilliant service that…

On the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 outbreak in Ireland, it wasn’t surprising that the issue of the lockdown and religious practice featured prominently in the media last week, especially considering the Catholic Bishops’ statement on religious worship which put this back more prominently on the agenda. David Quinn discussed the matter on Today with…

I can understand people getting upset about ill-treatment of animals, and I doubt that anyone who is cruel to animals would be kind to the human beings in their lives. However, I do think the reaction to the picture of trainer Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse two years ago has been excessive. Sports Minister…