I stared out the window as the sublime blue-grey of a summer’s dawn broke. The dawn chorus slowly erupted, to distract somewhat from the interminable chorus of ‘banana, banana’ from an annoying character that featured in the cartoon which was playing on my phone. In these past weeks, our two-year-old has apparently given up sleeping almost…

I’ve been thinking a lot about vocations lately. We are all aware how many of our priests have had to cocoon during this pandemic because their age puts them in a vulnerable position. Commentators have suggested that this time has given us a glimpse of where the Church in Ireland may be in the coming…

A Parent’s Perspective Some years ago, I invited a woman to get involved in some pro-life activities. She’d been very involved in campaigning in the past but was adamant that her days of active involvement were over. I think she felt that as the aches and pains of advancing age took their toll, she didn’t…

The littlest person in our house turned two this week. Just a year ago, she could barely walk or talk. Now, she can not only walk, but she can dance, jump and run. She can not only talk, but she can sing, shout and make jokes. Just two years ago, we beheld for the first…

Children’s Corner Tornados are one of the world’s scariest natural phenomenon but they are also hugely interesting and much can be learnt by observing them from a scientific perspective. Fortunately in Ireland these powerful vortexes don’t develop on the scale they do in other countries. To make a tornado, you need just the right mix…

As I suspected, returning to Mass after three and a half months was an emotional experience. I went down to the cathedral here in Letterkenny, the 8am Mass, mask on, hands sanitised, social distancing in effect. So it wasn’t like any Mass I’ve ever been involved with before but it was good to be there.…

We sat huddled by the fire as the rain lashed relentlessly against the windows. My wife was treating one child for mild hypothermia and another for sunburn. We were, of course, on a traditional Irish summer holiday. The most accurate predictor of rainfall in June is the scheduling of the school holidays. It is an…

“You don’t get to be Racist and Irish,” Imelda May reminded us in her powerful poem recently. I would be inclined to add that you don’t get to be racist and Christian either but that isn’t always clear. Whether it is Donald Trump wielding a Bible in front of St John’s Episcopal Church or a…

A Parent’s Perspective At the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in 2008 in Quebec, Canada, Pope Benedict XVI spoke passionately via satellite about the Eucharist as “our most beautiful treasure” and “the sacrament per excellence”, introducing us early into eternal life. The theme of the congress that year was ‘The Eucharist, gift of God for the…

My eldest daughter skipped downstairs to breakfast, threw her arms in the air in triumph, and announced delightedly: “Today we are going to see nana and granddad!” It had been almost three months since the kids had met with their beloved grandparents. This pandemic-induced hiatus was all the more frustrating, knowing that they were just…