Do you remember Summer 2018? Ed Sheeran came to Ireland and played ‘Galway girl’ to hundreds of thousands of people (including me) in a series of concerts. In Cork the English Market celebrated its 230th birthday. Storm Emma hit Ireland in early 2018 and during the summer Storm Hector left many households without power. In…
Sweet Treats Apple pie is my favourite dessert to eat in the winter, and I always choose apple pie over pumpkin at Thanksgiving. This recipe has the wonderful tartness of apples and the warmth from cinnamon and mixed spice which makes it perfect for a cold night. The butterscotch sauce is optional, but who could…
The Sunday Gospel November is the month when we remember those who have died and we pray for the souls in purgatory. Purgatory is not specifically mentioned in the Bible but the doctrine of purgatory is a beautiful development which holds in unity two ideas that might appear to be contradictory. The doctrine of God’s…
Personal Profile Timmy Manley admits that he was initially roped into joining his local Legion of Mary praesidium – but now, 62 years later, he continues to serve in the lay apostolate. The Watergrasshill and Glenville branch of the Legion was started in 1952, one the earlier ones to start in Co. Cork, Mr Manley…
Study shows endangered species can reproduce without mating California condors, a critically endangered species, can reproduce without mating, according to a study by conservation scientists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. During a routine analysis of biological samples from the California condors in the zoo’s breeding programme, the scientists found that two condor chicks…
A Parent’s Perspective A young woman I was talking to thought it would be difficult to ask her four friends, who are atheists, to accompany her into the church to light a candle. She’s Catholic, while they don’t believe in God; the presumption might be that such an invitation would be rejected. It’s a pretty…
The Catholic Church has always embraced meditation on death, and November is the month most associated with that, writes Jason Osborne The leaves continue to fall from the trees as nature uses the rest of autumn to prepare for winter, a fitting natural symbol of death, which is at the forefront of Catholic minds in the…
Personal Profile When Dr Alex O’Hara visited Clonmacnoise as an eleven-year-old, he could hardly have known that it would be a life-defining moment. But looking back now, the professor of early Church history and Irish monasticism knows that this visit and another to a monastery in Normandy had a “profound effect” on him. Dr O’Hara’s…
“To tell someone, with fullness of heart, ‘I love you’, is virtually the same as saying, ‘You shall never die.’ Twentieth century philosopher Gabriel Marcel wrote those words and they echo words written 500 years earlier by Blessed Magdalen Panattieri, a Dominican Tertiary, who wrote to a friend, “I could not be happy in heaven…
Self-driving race cars make history in Indianapolis The winner was not a driver but an algorithm at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the top car clocked an average speed of 218km/h, ushering autonomous vehicles into a new era. Setting the record pace over two laps, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) won…
Ruadhán Jones
Maria Byrne
Fr Ronald Rolheiser