Category: Family & Faith

Charity at a time of chaos

A Parent’s Perspective The line from the poem Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats “all changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born” has been in my head a lot recently. Queen Elizabeth famously referred to 1992 as her annus horribilis, a Latin phrase meaning horrible year. Like many other families all over Ireland and…

Dad’s Diary

All the fun has gone out of the pandemic. It’s not that I mean to be flippant about something which has cost a million lives globally, and which continues to cause economic devastation. Yet most people acknowledge that there were real positives to the sudden interruption to normal life imposed by the spring lockdown. This…

A question of bias

Everyday Philosophy We’re all biased. All of us believe things for bad reasons. We believe things because of wrong assumptions we never question, because of people we want to impress, because of patterns of thought that are evolutionarily useful but not apt for finding the truth. There’s no getting around our bias: the best we…

Faith in the Family

I have just had the privilege and delight of being bean an tí for an online discussion panel about how as families and parishes we can care for creation. On the panel were Bishop Alan McGuckian of Raphoe Diocese, Nóirín Lynch Director of the Margaret Aylward Centre for Faith and Dialogue in Glasnevin and Jane…

Family News & Events

Protecting and Empowering Children in an Online World One of CyberSafe Ireland’s most popular sessions, this talk is aimed at parents of children from 8-13 years old which offers a general overview to raise awareness of the main factors to consider around social media, gaming and the online world. The aim is not to scare…

Devastating effects of Covid-19

Medical Matters It’s now nearly seven months since the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Ireland and the start of an unprecedented journey of restrictions and lockdowns that has radically changed the way we live. While we avoided a surge that could have swamped our health service, the death toll stands at over 1700, many…

Hearing the cry of the earth

Living Laudato Si’ During the month of September, Christians around the world are celebrating the Season of Creation, a season in the liturgical calendar where we are invited to reflect, pray and take action for our common home. It was heartening to see Bishop Larry Duffy (of Clogher Diocese) issue a special pastoral letter for…

Dad’s Diary

There’s nothing more terrifying than a clock. For we mortals, the mere passage of time is a memento mori like no other. Yet, in the end, we may hope that the lifting of the veil of this world reveals something vastly more beautiful. The heartache which time causes in the parents of small children is…

Family News & Events

Let yourself Le-go for Halloween Let yourself Le-go with a themed Halloween Camp run by LEGO for children aged between 3 to 12 years in Arklow. “Come to join the fun in our action-packed Halloween LEGO Camp, where kids can enjoy creating spooky LEGO designs, arts and crafts, baking, pottery, fun and games and much…