On a visit to Mountjoy, Chai Brady investigates the good works of techy inmates The magic happens on level 5 where old keyboards and monitors lie in green baskets on the floor of what looks like an average computer lab at first glance. Except this room has bars on every window. The old pieces…
‘Old Christmas is still alive…’ Once again Christ-mas, and all its associations, religious and commercial, has passed over and the New Year approaches. But this is only in Western countries, in Europe, the Americas, and parts of Africa. In the Levant, those Asian countries where the sun rises each day among the most ancient Christian…
For this scripture group, Christmas came early, writes Chai Brady After two years of hard grind four local women’s dreams came to fruition when a new crib was unveiled in the Gaeltacht village of Moycullen, Co Galway. The vision of the project was to bring “the true meaning of Christmas to the very heart…
Children’s Corner By now the Christmas Day festivities of exchanging presents, singing hymns and gorging on mince pies will be over, and family and visiting friends will be enjoying relaxing and being entertained, especially if children are the ones performing. From dancing and singing to acting and playing an instrument, parents, aunties and uncles…
Families are being helped to grow together despite imprisonment, writes Colm Fitzpatrick Although to many imprisonment might seem like the end of the world, an Irish-based voluntary group are reimagining and reforming how families can cope and grow together in spite of these difficult circumstances. The Bedford Row Family Project is a Franciscan/Mercy initiative…
The Notebook Bernard Cotter “You’ll be very busy coming up to Christmas, Father.” As a newly-ordained priest, this frequently-repeated greeting in November and December confused me. I couldn’t figure how Christmas could make life even busier for me than every other month. I asked my senior and wiser colleague, who explained gently that I…
The New York Times had a long article earlier this month on what it described in the headline as “the demise of the Church” in Ireland. Much has been made of the effects of abuse scandals and a tidal wave of secularism on the Faith. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of demise are greatly…
Not everyone has someone to ‘look out for’ or care for them Irish Church-goers have been urged to use the Christmas period to try and lighten the burden on people in their communities who may be suffering or feeling vulnerable. In a joint Christmas message Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin and his Church…
I tend to send Christmas cards in fits and starts (and I still adhere to the old French custom that Christmas greetings can be sent well into January – certainly until Epiphany on January 6). But a melancholy aspect of leaving through my address book in December is to note the little cross I put against…
It may now be time for the Gardaí to act on the murky world of foreign funding of political campaigns in Ireland, writes Greg Daly “As you will appreciate, ‘garnering support for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution’ clearly falls within the definition of political purpose,” the Standards in Public…
Chai Brady
Peter Costello
Colm Fitzpatrick
Michael Kelly
Greg Daly
Mary Kenny