It’s becoming increasing difficult in today’s world to trust anything or anybody, for good reason. There’s little that’s stable, safe to lean on, trustworthy. We live in a world where everything is in flux, is flux, where everywhere we see distrust, abandoned values, debunked creeds, people moving on from where they used to be, contradictory…
Eat your vegetables! – study Meat and spuds is a staple in every Irish home but a new study has suggested that staving off the poultry might reduce your chances of cognitive decline. According to research carried out by Prof. Koh Woon Puay which has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating…
Personal Profile Bro. Tony Dolan’s agricultural initiatives have changed lives, writes Colm Fitzpatrick The Italian friar St Francis of Assisi is renowned for his love of nature and is globally known as the Patron Saint of Ecologists. While few can claim that they have successfully captured the attention of birds through preaching, one Irish…
Luke Silke The topic of mindfulness in Irish schools is one which has sparked a considerable amount of public discussion in recent weeks, following criticism by Alphonsis Cullinane, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, of the practice of mindfulness and yoga in Catholic schools. A document from the hierarchy ‘A Reflection on Mindfulness’ discusses how…
Some politicians never tire of telling us how liberal and tolerant Ireland is today. It is, they claim, a much better place than the Ireland of the past. Debate, they tell us, is much more civilised today and there is not the ‘chilling effect’ that many claim the prospect of a belt of a crosier…
French mayor apologises over nun garb ‘blunder’ An elderly nun in France has received an apology from a French mayor after retirement home staff wrongly rejected her, citing a strict ban on religious garb and “ostentatious” signs of religion. The rules would have barred the nun from wearing her religious habit and veil at the…
A Matter of Interpretation by Elizabeth MacDonald (Fairlight Books, £12.99) Elizabeth MacDonald’s absorbing novel is built up around the character of the celebrated Michael Scot – now known to be of Scottish rather than Irish origin – and his relations with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Hohenstaufen II and various other players in the Middle…
I was in Carrickmacross last week, visiting my uncle, Brian Mac a’ Bhaird. You might have seen him on Prime Time earlier in the month, with his wife Sheila, and Romy, their youngest daughter. Romy has cerebral palsy, and faces severe limitations in living her daily life, limitations her extraordinary parents, siblings, and neighbours have…
European Social Survey-Summary of findings on religion in Ireland Chai Brady examines the European Social Survey findings on Ireland’s religiosity There has been a sudden decrease in the number of Irish people who say they attend religious services once a week or more according to the most recent findings of the European Social…
The Biggest Little Farm (PG) “They told us we were crazy,” says narrator John Chester of his ambition to create a farm with his wife Molly that would be totally in harmony with nature in this fascinating documentary set in Ventura County, “and they were right.” It started with Todd. That’s their wide-eyed dog. His…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Colm Fitzpatrick
Michael Kelly
Peter Costello
Chai Brady
Aubrey Malone