I have friends who are on holiday in Italy at the moment, and they are having a wonderful time. Access to the historic monuments is spaced and well-arranged. Pompeii is as awesome as ever and Naples as full of life and charm as it always was. The lakes are fabulous (even if the Med is inclined…
Following the “frustrating” theft from their orchard, the sisters of the Priory of St Benedict in Co. Cork were delighted with the unexpected good that came of it. The priory in Cobh is home to an order of contemplative nuns, who welcome the public to their chapel and Bible Garden. But the sisters recently discovered…
Two nursing homes owned by the Sisters of Charity were closed suddenly, taking staff, residents and the nuns themselves by surprise, sources say. The closure of Dublin nursing homes St Monica’s and St Mary’s and convalescent home Caritas was due to economic constraints. The sisters released a statement saying they “are very concerned about what…
Men are often forgotten victims of domestic violence writes Ruadhán Jones Lockdown brought issues of domestic violence to the fore, with social distancing measures restricting victim’s access to help, support and refuge. Consequently, Gardaí and abuse helplines reported increases of between 25-33% over the lockdown period. The majority of domestic violence victims are women and…
The View The US election poses yet another difficult choice for Catholics. Yes, Joe Biden plays on his Catholic heritage to the extent that he has featured his 2016 meeting with Pope Francis in campaign advertisements. However, in that same video, he also talked about meeting a group of nuns the same day, “lovely women”…
Church bells and the Muslim call to prayer sounded on August 11 to mark a minute of silence for those who perished in the explosion devastating much of Beirut and its port a week earlier. The port, badly damaged by a deadly explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, resumed partial operations. But the same…
The “downright rude and uncooperative” behaviour of a small number of Massgoers in Carrick-on-Shannon has been criticised amid ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. A note in the parish bulletin reads that the overall response “of our parishioners has been very positive. It has also enabled us to join with different families from our parish in celebrating anniversary…
More and more doctors will be willing to end a life deliberately and doctors who disagree will be driven out, writes David Quinn Eight years ago, during the furore following the death in a Galway hospital of Savita Halappanavar, the then bishop of Kilmore, Leo O’Reilly, warned that introducing abortion legislation even in a limited…
Cardinal Maurice Piat of Port-Louis, Mauritius, has praised public responses to an oil spill that devastated the island’s coastline, as one prominent lay Catholic demanded “honest information” about the disaster. “Numerous families are afflicted by a pestilential and persistent odor – fishermen and all those living from the sea are suffering particularly, while ecological treasures…
As an occasional continuation of our series ‘Lockdown Reading’, this week we are publishing an appreciation of a book once very well known, but now neglected… Seán Ryan Literature can generally be broken down to two forms – the easy-reading form encompassing the popular chic-lit, page-turner form, which high brows mightn’t even concede to be…
Mary Kenny
Ruadhán Jones
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn