Sometimes, when I am watching a film or TV series based in New York, I am saddened when the Twin Towers appear in the background. Not only does it date the program as pre-2001, but it is also a reminder of a time when what happened on 11 September nineteen years ago, was unimaginable. On… Read More
On the fifth of this month, we celebrated the feast of St Teresa of Calcutta, fondly known to almost everyone as Mother Teresa. The woman who for much of her life was described as “the living saint”, was canonized on September 4, 2010. Teresa, forever associated with India, especially Calcutta (now known by its local… Read More
There is a well-known saying that, ‘Behind every great man there is a great woman.’ This certainly applies to St Monica, whose feast day we celebrate last week. Monica’s son, St Augustine, has been described as the most Significant Christian Thinker after St Paul. His adaptation of classical thought to Christian teaching created a theological… Read More
When the Taoiseach, Micheāl Martin spoke to the nation on Tuesday evening, at one point he commented that the government did not want to interfere with the spiritual life of people. This was in response to a reporter’s question with regard to people going to Mass. His response was interesting because going to Mass is… Read More
The Coronavirus and resulting Lockdown have taken their toll on many areas of life, including religious practice. Religion and its meaning in peoples’ lives have been the subject of much comment as places of worship across the country were closed for weeks on end. Such a state of affairs was unprecedented in modern times. What… Read More
The main topic in the news this week and the only one to topple Covid-19, albeit temporarily, was the death of John Hume, the man without whom peace would never been attained in Northern Ireland. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s here in the south were used to the daily… Read More
This week we celebrated the feast of St Oliver Plunkett, who when canonized in 1975, became the first Irish saint for almost 700 years, as well as the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified. It was an honour that he had paid for dearly – with a life on the run filled with… Read More
The news from the Vatican this week was a reminder that we are living in a unique period of history because we have a reigning pope Francis, and a retired pope Benedict both alive at the same time. Benedict was the first pontiff to resign in 600 years and still lives within the walls of… Read More
This week we saw the beginning of what is referred to as the opening up of our country. Hand in hand with this is the notion of ‘the new normal’, a phrase which strikes fear in the hearts of some, intimating that things have changed irrevocably. I am still getting used to the idea of… Read More
Following the huge success of the High Hopes Choir and Choir of Age, David Brophy assembled a choir from among Ireland’s 355,000 family carers. He wanted their involvement in the choir to be therapeutic and fun. In a two-part documentary for RTE, the viewers hear the various different stories as they watched the participants prepare… Read More
Within the last two weeks the usual headlines regarding Covid-19 have been replaced by another huge news item; sadly not a good one. What should have been a minor incident in Minnesota turned into a world news story, leading to scenes of mass protests and demonstrations across the United States. On May 26, George Floyd… Read More
One day last week I noticed that the doors of my parish church were open so I decided to go in and see what was happening. I discovered that a small section of the church was in use for people to make a visit, just to light a candle and say a prayer. There was… Read More
Pope St John Paul II was born one hundred years ago last Monday. When future historians look back on the most influential personalities of the 20th century, his name will undoubtedly loom large in their accounts. Even his critics would agree that few individuals have had a greater impact-not just in the field of religion-but… Read More
All of us in Ireland and the rest of the world have been affected by the crisis of Covid-19, none more so than the people working on the front line. One such group is, of course, the nurses, those dedicated women, and men, many of whom have lost their lives, in the fight against this… Read More
This week saw the lifting of the government’s restrictive ban on people aged over seventy. There has been a lot of talk about it in the media, and it was greeted with delight by those in this age bracket. I listened to an interview with former government minister, Mary O’Rourke, speaking about how excited she… Read More
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Its aim is to raise awareness of the negative impact our actions as human beings have on the environment and the earth as a whole. Since it began in 1970, Earth Day has continued to… Read More