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France: Religion in a Secular State

Image: www.jusoorpost.com Earlier this week France’s Education Minister Gabriel Affal announced a ban on abayas – the long, flowing dresses worn by some Muslim women – in public schools.  Secularism is a key concept in France’s Constitution, and religious markers considered conspicuous or “ostentatious”, including Islamic headscarves, large Christian crosses, and Jewish yarmulkes (skullcaps) have… Read More

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Remembering Omagh

Image: www.standard.co.uk At Mass last Sunday in my parish church there was one of the most beautiful displays of flowers that I have ever seen, behind the altar on both sides and on the right at the front. My friend commented to me that she thought they had been there for a wedding which had… Read More

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The King and The King of Kings

Image: CNN Last Saturday, 6 May was the day when Westminster Abbey in London was the setting for the first British coronation in 70 years. This event marks in a special way King Charles III’s transition from history’s longest-reigning Prince of Wales into King of the United Kingdom, which comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and the… Read More

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At What Cost?: Russia vs Ukraine

Image: www.abc.net.au In recent days the major international news story has been the decision by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that his government will provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks and approve requests by other countries to do the same. Naturally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed his satisfaction at this development calling them, “important… Read More

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Keeping the Crib in Christmas

Image: Br Sean Blackwell The crib in Bethlehem is what Christmas is all about, although with every year that passes it seems that this truth is becoming more and more blurred.  We are becoming increasingly aware of the ways in which the Season has become a time for overspending and overindulging, and much has been… Read More

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The Greatest Teacher

The Greatest Teacher There is a well-known saying which goes as follows , ‘If you want to feed me today, give me rice.   If you want to feed me for the rest of my life, teach me how to grow rice.’ The long-term goal is education, and it is the teacher who is at the… Read More

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No to Nuclear Weapons

Image: www.skynews.com The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by a United Nations diplomatic conference on 7 July 2017.  It is the first applicable multilateral agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons. The first meeting of States Parties to TPNW took place in Austria last week.  The aim was to set the tone… Read More

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Heartbreak in Texas

Image: www.buzzfeednews.com Last week we watched and listened in horror as news broke of the mass killing of 21 people at the Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.  Two teachers and nineteen children, all under twelve, had been finishing their last day of school before breaking up for the summer when the killer, eighteen years… Read More

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Justice For All: Ukrainian Humanitarian Crisis

Image:www.independent.ie Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the largest and fastest refugee movements that Europe has witnessed since the end of World War II. By 22 March, only seven days into the war, 874,000 people were estimated to have fled to neighbouring countries. Ireland, a nation of just five million people that in… Read More

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Giving Prisoners Hope

Image:www.thejakartapost.com As I write this the Annual Conference of the Association of Prison Officers are meeting in Sligo and some of the issues that have arisen were a subject of a news report headline. While I listened, I was further reinforced in my view that there are few things in life worse than the prospect… Read More