Black Friday is the new December 8! For many years there was a great Irish tradition of the pre-Christmas shopping season beginning on the Holy Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. People from all over the country would flock to Dublin or their nearest shopping town to take in the festive atmosphere.…
I recently had a weird dream. Basically it went like this. Donald Trump changed his mind and at short notice decided he would visit Ireland on his way back from the World War I celebrations in Paris. The Government was all over the place trying to put all the arrangements in place. It was decided…
During a two-week period in July our parish was faced with the reality of suicide three times. The magnificent summer sunshine somehow jarred with the dark clouds of sadness and despair which hovered over our frightened community. Two single men, one 58 the other 26, and then a young mother of four children whose youngest…
The Notebook This weekend’s visit by Pope Francis will inevitably rekindle many memories of the only previous papal visit to our shores. In September 1979 when Pope John Paul arrived I had been a seminarian for just one month. As you can imagine I was already full of idealism and religious zeal and to…
The Notebook Megan McKenna tells the story of a man who decided to clean out his fish tank. The problem was where to put the fish while he did the cleaning. He decided on the bathtub. He transported the fish, dumped them in their luxurious temporary quarters, and went to work cleaning the tank.…
The Notebook I was watching the Late Late Show in the company of two of my colleagues when the exit poll results were announced. To be honest we were shell-shocked. I woke up on Saturday morning totally depressed and wondering do I really have a place in this country, this Church, this community any…
Rosie opened her new café and restaurant in the Midlands about 12 months ago. The business has gone from strength to strength. Many of the customers are regulars and they banter with Rosie and each other about the news of the day. A few months ago Rosie noticed an older woman coming into the restaurant…
The Notebook I still don’t know to this day what originally caused it but for the first 25 years of my life our two families were locked in a bitter neighbourhood feud. We were next-door neighbours in a very close knit rural Irish village nestled under the shadow of the mountains. Our homes were…
The Notebook One of the things I would love to be able to experience is to stand in the inner chamber at Newgrange on the morning of December 21, the Winter solstice. Imagine standing in absolute darkness and then be astonished as the sunlight finds its way through the channel above the entrance into…
I am reminded of the somewhat cynical remark made by someone a few years ago when he said “it’s well for those who can afford to say their prayers abroad”. It was a comment on the many thousands of Irish people who every year travel to places of pilgrimage like Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, Rome, the…