Campaigns by the ethnic Gorkha people for a separate homeland in the Darjeeling area of eastern India are based in real grievances, according to the local Church. The area has witnessed violent clashes since June 8, and although Darjeeling’s Bishop Stephen Lepcha said: “The Church is not directly involved in the protest,” he has added,…
Time is running out to solve Venezuela’s problems, two former Latin American leaders have announced, calling for the international community to follow the Vatican’s lead in tackling the crisis. Speaking in the Vatican, Bolivia’s former president Jorge Quiroga said that President Nicolas Maduro’s attempts to “put a group of his friends in what is called…
Over 1,000 British doctors and medical students have publicly opposed efforts to persuade the British Medical Association (BMA) to back abortion up to birth. Ahead of the association’s annual representative meeting, the doctors and students have signed a letter to Dr Anthea Mowat, the doctors’ union representative body chairwoman, warning that plans to decriminalise abortion…
During the pre-paration of 2013’s McAleese Report, Maynooth historian Dr Jacinta Prunty met with a panel where one of the men involved asked about shaving the girls’ heads, one of the actions most commonly linked in the popular mind with Ireland’s Magdalen Asylums. “All I could think was that they were constantly buying combs every…
Pope Francis is a well-known soccer fan. His favourite team is San Lorenzo de Almagro, one of the most important teams in Argentina, and the Pontiff still keeps his membership card for the team. However, thanks to the efforts of an Irish priest, Pope Francis may find a new love for the GAA, with the…
When was the last time you saw a priest portrayed positively on television or in the cinema? The question from a friend of mine struck a chord with me. And, after a few minutes, I had to admit I couldn’t think of a recent example. It got me thinking about the fact that when I…
New research debunks the sensationalist myths surrounding the Magdalen laundries in Ireland, a leading historian has claimed. Dr Jacinta Prunty, head of history at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, has painstakingly trawled the archives for a new book which aims to set the record straight. Dr Prunty says she hopes her new book –…
The Redemptorist Order has revealed that as well as attracting huge numbers to their churches, their annual novenas are now drawing thousands of viewers to watch the services online. Fr Noel Kehoe, rector of Clonard Monastery in Belfast, said that on average 14,000 people had watched this year’s novena on the web – the highest…
The World of Books The news that President Trump is to withdraw the US from the Paris Accord on Climate Change may already be last month’s news, but a few comments of a cultural nature about the background might not be out of place. It is to be hoped that given his hectic schedule the…
Ian D’Alton County Louth and the Irish revolution 1912-1923 edited by Donal Hall and Martin Maguire (Irish Academic Press, €19.99 pb, €39.99 hb). In this ‘decade’ of commemorating and remembering the formative period from 1912 to 1923 we are already buried in books. The centenary of the 1916rebellion has seen the emergence of literally hundreds of…
Greg Daly
Mags Gargan
Michael Kelly
Colm Fitzpatrick