Medical Matters Depression affects about 10% of Irish adults with over 400,000 people estimated to be taking antidepressants. The discovery of drugs to treat low mood emerged only in the 1950’s and by chance, after an antihistamine and anti-TB medication were observed to have positive effects on mental health. What both shared in common was…
English car thief found stuffed inside giant teddy A car thief who hid inside a giant teddy bear has been jailed for nine months, PA reports. Joshua Dobson, 18, from Spotland, Rochdale, was wanted by police for stealing a car and not paying for fuel. Officers searched for him at an address in Rochdale. Mr…
Personal Profile Music and the Faith have been a part of Marcella Walsh’s life from a very young age. It began with singing grace around the dinner table as a child, and continues today as director of music at Queen’s University Belfast’s Catholic chaplaincy and as a professional opera singer. Marcella’s family were always involved…
At the end of the day, all of us, believers and non-believers, pious and impious, share one common humanity and all end up on the same road. This has many implications. It’s no secret that today religious practice is plummeting radically everywhere in the secular world. Those who are opting out don’t all look the…
The Sunday Gospel Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Last Sunday, we heard him say that he had come to bring fire to the earth and that he would have to plunge into the sea of suffering, a prospect that caused him great distress. Somebody came up to him and asked, “Sir, will there…
In the month of September, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians are invited to celebrate the Season of Creation which runs from the World Day of Prayer for Creation on September 1 to the Feast of St Francis of Assisi (October 4). This ecumenical season invites Christians to pray with and for creation, to reflect on…
It’s essential to know what to bring and what to do before you head out into the wild, writes Jason Osborne Having just returned from a very enjoyable camping trip in Poland, I’m ready to sing the praises of this primal activity. A night out under the stars, among the trees, has an effect on…
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…
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser