The Irish Dominicans: 800 Years, 1224–2024 traces a history of preaching and scholarship through centuries of suppression, martyrdom, decline and remarkable revival. Its author, Fr Terence Crotty OP, initially thought the book might take him about two weeks. The 800th anniversary of the Order’s arrival in Ireland was approaching, and it had been suggested that…
I am young enough to remember the Ireland of my childhood. I am one of Bertie’s babies, born just before the turn of the millennium, raised in the long glow of the Celtic Tiger’s era of greed and excess. My earliest memories are of cranes on the skyline and a country that seemed to be…
Gana, a refugee from Kharkiv—one of the Ukrainian cities hardest hit by Russian attacks—found safety in Ireland not only from the war, but also from her abusive husband. Now she fears she and her five-year-old daughter, who has autism, could be left without a home. Gana is deeply concerned by the Irish Government’s plans to…
As some pilgrims commuted to Knock for the Annual Grandparents Pilgrimage, and others climbed Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday, many travelled to Dublin to watch the GAA Football All-Ireland final in Croke Park, where Mayo was playing Kerry, and won the championship for the fourth time – the first in 75 years. Thousands of pilgrims…
Senator Sarah O’Reilly’s journey to the Seanad was unexpected and accidental, she says. The first Aontú representative to be elected to the Seanad explained in an interview with The Irish Catholic that she doesn’t think of herself as a “career politician”. Recalling her life as a single mom with four kids on social welfare in…
On June 9 of 1974, Fr Martin Casey was ordained in St Peter’s Seminary in Co. Wexford. “I thought maybe it might be a way of being helpful to people in some way or another and bringing people closer to God,” Fr Casey told The Irish Catholic about his journey to priesthood. “That thought has…
An Apostolic worker in Elphin Diocese has been awarded a ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award’ at the Apostolic Workers Display Day on June 7 after more than 50 years of dedicated work. This award is one of the highest honours bestowed by the papacy and is given to Catholics who have shown a long and…
In 1626, around four centuries ago, an otherwise unknown young man quietly left Ireland for the Continent, bound for an Augustinian friary to continue his formal education. Like many Irish religious during the Penal era, William Tirry departed because Ireland was not permitted to educate or sustain Catholic clergy openly. Despite the landscape of shattered…
Martin Shaw on myth, maturity and the movement to service From the moment we reach for our phones in the morning, stories compete for our attention: news blurbs, targeted advertisements, television series, political narratives and the curated lives of strangers. Our difficulty today is not that we lack stories. If anything, perhaps for the first…
There’s no place like the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, said Fr Paul Lawlor, a native of Tralee, archaeologist and current Rector of the Basilica. “It’s one of the most beautiful and fascinating churches in the world.” The Basilica of San Clemente is composed today of three layers: The upper 12th century Basilica, the…
Renata Steffens