Dear Editor, The title of Fr Sean Smith’s item in your 26/08/2021 issue was ‘We still speak about keeping the Faith as if it were something, instead of a relationship with someone’. David Quinn’s article in your 14/10/2021 issue is titled ‘The Church has underestimated the reality of evil’ and discusses the report on child…
Gabriel Fitzmaurice “Who can beat the kingdom sweet at horse or hound or man?” How Brendan Kennelly loved to quote those lines from Bryan MacMahon’s 1946 Kerry All-Ireland victory song. Football and song. Both would come together in the person of Ireland’s most popular poet, Brendan Kennelly. Indeed he played on the Kerry minor football…
The Sunday Gospel It was an attempt to start an argument with Jesus, to disconcert him, when one of the Pharisees asked for his opinion on the greatest commandment. Jesus cut through all their commentaries and debates with a simple and challenging answer. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with…
On the occasion of his retirement in 2018 as organist of Christ Church Cathedral Waterford, Dean Maria Jansson described Eric Sweeney as “a man of deep faith for whom music is his language with God”. Eric Sweeney’s final service coincided with the ordination to the Church of Ireland priesthood of former leader of the Green…
Notebook Probably the best-loved poem written in the Irish language begins with the words ‘Messe ocus Pangur Bán’. In Robin Flower’s translation, the first stanza reads: “I and Pangur Bán my cat,/‘Tis a like task we are at:/Hunting mice is his delight,/Hunting words I sit all night.” It was probably written at some point in…
It was a week of ‘good example, bad example’ – concepts you don’t hear much about these days, though we constantly hear about the importance of ‘influencers’. It’s a term usually reserved for obscure ‘celebrities’ on social media yet good role models are still so important for inspiring the young and boosting flagging morale among…
Filming of vulgar music video in church forces archbishop to apologise Spanish archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves has asked for forgiveness after the filming of a music video, which included sensual dance scenes, took place within the church. Archbishop Chaves, of Toledo, was also forced to carry out a penitential act Sunday at the city’s cathedral…
900-year-old sword found encrusted in shells off Israel A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to a sharp-eyed amateur diver, the Israel Antiquities Authority has said. Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt…
I’ve mentioned once or twice before that I grew up in Northern Ireland and for me it will always be home. When I was six-years-old, the British and Irish governments signed what became known as the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. For the first time, it gave the Irish Government a say in the day-to-day affairs…
Archbishop Eamon Martin has said that the Churches could have done more to aid peace and reconciliation in Ireland. Speaking at a service of reflection and hope in Armagh this morning (Thursday), Archbishop Martin referred to the centenary of partition saying: “When I look back on what happened on this island in 1921, like many…
Brendan O’Regan
Michael Kelly