It is not very long ago that people with disabilities were treated in an often callous and inhumane manner in Ireland and across the world. Often, we look at the past through the lens of ‘presentism’ where we judge the actions of the past through our current values, systems, resources and knowledge. It is easy…
Today, October 10, is World Sight Day. This year, this important international day focuses the world’s attention on the importance of eye care in young people and inspiring children everywhere to love their eyes. World Sight Day is an opportunity to highlight the importance of protecting our eyes and vision, raise awareness of vision impairment and…
The Irish Catholic Autumn Legacy Supplement 2024 I am writing this from the Mater hospital. I went in last week with a sore throat and a week later I am just on the verge of getting out. I have always been healthy. I don’t think I have ever taken a sick-day in more than 25…
It isn’t area I would normally consider engaging in because I am not a geologist. I take on faith the determinations of science that the Earth is a certain age. I take on faith that radiometric dating or other such methods give reasonable estimates of the earth’s age. I have no reason to doubt that…
The news that Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has received compensation in the form of a £13,000 payout and an apology from the UK police after she contested her arrests for silently praying in the vicinity of an abortion clinic as a breach of her human rights should be greeted with a degree of caution here in Ireland.…
I recently caught up with some back issues of The Irish Catholic and I was struck by a comment from Senator Ronan Mullen in his View from the Seanad on June 27th. In attempting to discern a Christian way to protest, he finds that ‘People have been too passive to date of the anti-culture that…
I hear it quite often at Mass now as part of the Prayers of the Faithful or the General Intercessions: ‘We pray particularly for the unborn…’ It struck me recently about how increasingly important this is becoming in a secular world. There are a shrinking number of areas where the unborn child is considered as…
With Enoch Burke after having spent over 400 days in jail for refusing to abide by a court order, related to his initial refusal to comply with a request/instruction to refer to a pupil by their preferred pronouns at Wilson’s Hospital Secondary School, teachers and school administrators remain in the dark as to what is…
What is Rishi Sunak thinking? With the Conservative Party well and truly tanking in the polls, hanging on to only its most loyal voting base and an election a mere fortnight away, he chooses to announce that he is not opposed to assisted suicide. The Conservative Party, after 14 years in power, overseeing and implementing…
In 2015, the governments of Ireland and Kenya played an important role in co-facilitating the global agreement that is known as the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs as you may have heard them called The impact of the work of Ireland and Kenya together had the potential to be huge but it is starting to…