Almost 300 healthcare workers signed an open letter to the Minister of Health rejecting the legalisation of ‘at-home’ abortions in Northern Ireland. The 277 healthcare workers drafted the letter following a campaign by abortion advocates for the provision of over-the-phone abortion services. The letter demands better care for women and children than “unsafe and unacceptable…
Psychiatrist in the Chair: The Official Biography of Anthony Clare by Brendan Kelly and Muiris Houston (Merrion Press, €22.95 / £19.99) Charles Lysaght Anthony Clare (1942-2007) attained, by the age of 40, an eminence in the medical profession in Britain not surpassed by any graduate of an Irish medical school since King George VI’s radiologist Peter…
A Polish cardinal recently sanctioned by the Vatican for sexual abuse has died at the age of 97. Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz died the morning of November 16, the Polish bishops’ conference announced. Earlier this month, the apostolic nunciature in Poland announced disciplinary measures against the cardinal on November 6 as the result of an investigation…
Church leaders should be realistic without constantly going for a downbeat assessment of the future of Faith, writes David Quinn In his latest thoughts on the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin notes that ‘no religion’ is the second most ticked box in the religion section of the national census. This,…
The darkness echoing: exploring Ireland’s places of famine, death and rebellion by Gillian O’Brien (Doubleday, £14.99/€17.99) Felix M. Larkin G.K. Chesterton said of “the great Gaels of Ireland” that “all their wars are merry and all their songs are sad”. Thus did he highlight what Gillian O’Brien identifies as our “fascination with the morbid, the melancholic,…
The U.N. migration agency renewed its call for increased search and rescue efforts after another tragic shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea claimed the lives of 74 migrant men, women and children. According to the U.N. International Organisation for Migration, also known as IOM, a boat carrying more than 120 people capsized off the coast of…
A renowned “tower of strength” priest who ministered to people devasted by the 1993 Greysteel Massacre in the North has died. Fr Stephen Kearney (76) was the curate of Faughanvale and Lower Cumber parish in Derry before he died on Friday. He gave strength to the families of the eight people who were killed after…
Filipinos appealed for help as a fifth tropical storm or typhoon hit their country in a three-week period. These included the strongest typhoon since 2013 and the biggest floods since 2009. The latest, Typhoon Vamco – or Ulysses as it is known in Philippines – left at least 42 dead and 20 missing. Rescue workers…
Mainly about books By the books editor The great and internationally-regarded art galleries of Ireland (though now for a period of months necessarily closed) are institutions we are all rightly proud of. I sometime think, though, that they do not always do full justice to some talents who worked in what some might think of…
Pro-life group Precious Life have criticised health officials for assuming and making plans for up 6,500 abortions per year in Northern Ireland. The figure was found in the notes of a meeting involving officials from Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board held last December. Health officials discussed how many abortions they would need to…
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn
Chai Brady
Peter Costello