St Valentine’s Day is in a few days and it’s time to start signing those Valentine’s cards. Making your own card to send is much more thoughtful than buying one and you can write your own greeting inside. Sweep your crush off their feet with this love heart hot air balloon Valentine’s card. The heart…
Category: Family & Faith
Faith in the Family
We have just completed our fourth session of the Confirmation programme ‘You shall be my witnesses’ with over one hundred children who will be confirmed in our parish on February 13. Our fifth and final session will take place a couple of weeks after the children have been confirmed. I have really enjoyed these weeks,…
A St Valentine’s champagne and roses cake
A bouquet of roses and champagne with strawberries make the perfect treat for St Valentine’s Day. You can hit three birds with one stone by baking this strawberry and champagne sponge decorated with royal icing roses. For an alcohol free version, just omit the champagne from the buttercream. 275g self-raising flour 275g unsalted butter 275g…
Why faith schools are unique
Chloe Mangan Chloe Mangan describes what it means to have a Catholic ethos in her school I feel really lucky to be a student in a Catholic school managed by the CEIST Trust. Our prayer room is a wonderful facility. It is a room of escapism, tranquillity and silence. Moments of appreciation, forgiveness, or sorrow…
Going green gave me a nutritional boost
This columnist was feeling particularly run down this week. Perhaps it was the cumulative effect of the ‘January blues’ or the shock of my body having finally readjusted to a regular diet after all the Christmas excess. Having ascertained that it was probably a combination of both, I decided to take action. Let me explain.…
Meeting for praise and worship
Mags Gargan visits the Living Water young adult Charismatic prayer group Every Wednesday night as the shops on Dublin’s nearby Grafton Street begin to close their shutters and office workers met up for after work drinks or dinner, a group of young people are gathering at St Teresa’s church, Clarendon Street for praise and worship.…
A heart-shaped Pancake Tuesday
Pancake Tuesday is next week and it’s time to start practicing your best flipping methods. While thin, crepe-like pancakes seem to be the most popular type to make on the occasion, a thicker batter can make a nice change. This thick pancake batter recipe is similar to that of a drop scone. Because it holds…
How to achieve happiness
Science of life Happiness is that state in which one experiences joy, pleasure and contentment. Considerable research has been carried out on how to achieve happiness and many conclusions have been reached. One important conclusion is that wealth will not, in itself, produce happiness. Other things that do not, in themselves, correlate highly with happiness…
Dad’s Diary
One of the things I like about England is the 50p pieces. There is a pleasant continuity to using coins with shapes and sizes similar to those in circulation when I was a boy growing up in Cork. There is something reassuring about such small things in life remaining constant, and in seeing my kids stash…
Lent is closer than you may think!
Easter is early this year which means Lent begins in just two weeks and it will be time to give up our luxuries until Easter. An Advent calendar prepares us for the birth of Jesus and makes the countdown to Christmas all the more exciting. The time between the beginning of Lent and Easter is…

Erin Fox
Bairbre Cahill


Cathal Barry
Mags Gargan

William Reville

