I have criticised the media previously and do so again. I have been appalled by recent coverage in relation to the Church. So much media comment is based on untruth or exaggeration: for example elements of the media have not acknowledged the fact in the context of St Vincent’s Hospital, that the Sisters of Charity have…
A section of the crowd at a Rosary crusade on May 1 on a country road close to a Mass rock near Greencastle in Co. Tyrone, where a Canadian mining firm refused permission for a Catholic service last year. The Rosary will be said at the site every night during May. Photo: Mal McCann
Mags Gargan talks to the new chief executive of the Irish Chaplaincy in London Sixty years ago, the Irish Bishops’ Conference sent nine Columbans to England to minister to the thousands of Irish emigrants there, mainly to those working in the construction and catering industries. This was how the Irish Chaplaincy in London began and…
Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt last week may have been one of the shortest overseas trips so far in his papacy, but it may prove one of his most important. Friday morning saw the Pope arriving at Cairo airport and being officially welcomed to Egypt at the Heliopolis presidential palace, before joining the chief imam…
Many people mistakenly confuse the Catholic Church with its governing structure, writes David Quinn People are by now well familiar with the case against the Catholic Church. As Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said in a little-noticed address a few days ago, the attacks are relentless. We are much less familiar with the case in favour of…
Many people inside and outside the Catholic Church were glad Bishop Eamonn Casey received full honours from the Church when he died. He was, in his heyday, a charismatic and progressive figure, closely identified with the Catholic-founded development aid charity Trócaire. He was exposed to the crossfire in El Salvador that cost the life of…
Fr Vincent Sherlock Nobody was as surprised as myself. Ed Sheeran was playing his second concert in Croke Park and the reviews of the first concert were incredible. I thought about what a positive influence Ed had been in the lives of 160,000 plus people over two nights. My being there, I thought, had some…
Felix M. Larkin Ireland: The Autobiography – One hundred years in the life of the nation, told by its people ed. by John Bowman (Penguin Ireland, €25/£20) Shakespeare’s stage Irishman in Henry V, Captain Macmorris, famously asks “What ish my nation?” He answers his own question with these words: “Ish a villain, and a bastard,…
Inside the Monkey House: My Time as an Irish Prison Officer by John Cuffe (Collins Press, € 12.99) John Cuffe dealt with some of the most depraved and violent people in this country during his 30 years as a prison officer, between 1978 and 2007. During his long years in Arbour Hill, where the worst…
Living Stream of Catholicism: View of the Catholic Church Through the Centuries by Eamon Flanagan (St Pauls, £7.95) The author sets out to highlight the living stream of Catholicism throughout the centuries and this he achieves in prose and poetry. At the outset he divides world history into a number of segments which will be…
Nuala O’Loan
Mags Gargan
Greg Daly
David Quinn
Dr Martin Mansergh