Gorgosaurus skeleton sells for over $6 million at auction The first skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dinosaur to go under the hammer has sold for $6.1 million (€6m) at auction in New York. The specimen is 3 metres tall and 6.7m long, and had been expected to fetch between $5m and $8m. “The result places the…
Personal Profile Connor McCann has been involved in ministry for almost 40 years, in one form or another. Having discovered the great belonging the faith community offers, he discerned a vocation to the priesthood, before finding his vocation as a pastoral worker. I loved to sing, and in some respects I was a bit of…
In a particularly poignant passage in her poem, The Leaf and the Cloud, Mary Oliver pictures herself standing at the gravesite of her mother and father, reflecting on their lives. They were far from perfect and she doesn’t sugarcoat their faults. She openly names her mother’s heaviness of soul and her father’s immature faith. She…
This is a recipe for chocolate biscuit cake which is from my mother-in-law. It is similar to a Rocky Road, and is nothing short of addicting. I love this recipe not only for its ease but because it is a recipe that is a lot of fun! I added Smarties, marshmallows, and white chocolate to…
The Sunday Gospel My inspiration this week takes the Second Reading (Hebrews 12:1-4) as a lead in to the Gospel of the day (Luke 12: 49-53). “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.” I have often taken this sentence as the theme of…
Last week I wrote about the importance of good-decision making, but this week I want to turn to a topic that I feel is of equal importance: making and breaking habits. The habits you hold are likely to influence the decisions you make, but aside from this, they’ll determine the shape of your life outside…
Cold sores traced back to bronze age The spread of the modern-day cold sore has been traced back to the Bronze Age and linked to the advent of kissing in a new DNA study. Research suggests the HSV-1 strain of the herpes virus arose in the wake of vast migrations of people from Eurasia to…
A parent´s perspective When you get a late-night phone call from one of your adult children asking “Did you hear what happened?”, the natural reaction is to go into panic mode wondering what disaster has struck. It’s amazing how many worst-case scenarios can be conjured up in a split second and when the next question…
Liam Fitzpatrick Personal Profile Doctors are often intense. Getting through medical school is a difficult task, and the work that comes after requires a strong will and incredible passion. Dr Davog McCaffrey is no exception. In what little free time he has, Dr McCaffrey works at Lough Derg, one of the toughest pilgrimage sites in…
After his first arrest, the peace activist Daniel Berrigan went into hiding. After four months, he was captured, but during those months underground, although a threat to no one, he was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. There’s an irony here that did not go unnoticed. Someone put up a poster of him…
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Maria Byrne