Often when listening to someone singing live or on television, I close my eyes to try to hear the song so as not to let the singer’s performance get in the way of the song. A song can be lost in its performance; indeed, the performance can take over so that the song is replaced…
Month: June 2021
Abortion referendum anniversary was not a pretty picture
Sometimes media bias is a matter of what stories and issues are not covered. There was a rather muted coverage of last week’s third anniversary of the referendum for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. And what there was was almost entirely on the pro-choice side. For starters I couldn’t find any coverage on RTÉ…
We’ve allowed political ideology to pollute the Church
News of Boris Johnson’s weekend Catholic wedding has raised more than a few eyebrows. As my colleague Jason Osborne expertly demonstrates on page ten, the British prime minister has not received any special treatment that would not be available to anyone else. Neither is this a loophole, that has been exploited. None of these facts…
Physical and psychological pain in various manifestations
Sepsis attacks more than 250,000 people in the UK every year and 60,000 of these people die. Starfish (Amazon) is the true story of a man who succumbed to it and survived. After a very traumatic period where he almost lost his sanity – and his wife – he came to terms with it. This…
Tackling declining Church attendance in a materialistic world
Dear Editor, Over the last few decades, the status of the Catholic Church in Ireland has changed enormously. Catholicism lost its relevancy for many teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged people when they stopped believing or thinking about God and no longer saw the need to attend Church services in a growing materialistic environment. Faith no…
Family News
Cost of HSE cyberattack may exceed €100 million HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid has told that the cost of the cyberattack on the HSE’s IT systems may end up exceeding €100 million. Mr Reid told a media briefing that he had previously said the restoration efforts could cost in the tens of millions. However, he…
In brief
Hong Kong churches to commemorate Tiananmen victims Seven churches in Hong Kong will offer candlelight vigil Masses on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre this June. The Diocese of Hong Kong’s Justice and Peace Commission has announced that the churches will each offer a Mass for the Dead on the night of June 4.…
Starting with a blank screen and an open mind
Notebook Dear Notebookers! I am not exactly sure who you are. Well, that is not altogether accurate, since I spoke with a priest friend in Raphoe last week with whom I had not been in contact for a while. “The only place I see you”, he told me “is on the back page of The…
‘Do this in memory of me’
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a celebration of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. It is an astounding belief. We would not dare to hold this belief except that it is based on the very words of Jesus himself.…