Her name was Luca, but her family called her Pearl, and she was one of eight children born into the Henry family in Charlestown, Co. Mayo. Her parents came from a line of teachers whose legacy could be traced to 1844 and the “hedge schools” where the poorest in society got an informal education. In…
In modern culture, it is still fashionable for reporters to be dispatched to hospitals to find the first-born of 2025. Children, whether the media admits it or not, remain the world’s most valuable resource. “The best hope for the future,” was how former Irish American President, John F. Kennedy, put it. And so, north of…
Counting down to 2025, an old child’s riddle came to mind: “What time is it when the clock strikes thirteen?” The answer is obvious: “Time to buy a new clock!” Though frankly, if it had been reported on RTE that the clock in Times Square had struck thirteen, as 2024 expired, would any of us…
The Jubilee Year of Hope is a chance for a fresh start and time a return to the heart of Jesus, Bishop Alan McGuckian declared after officially opening the Holy Door in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast. The Bishop of Down and Connor told a packed congregation on Sunday that everyone has the ability to begin…
My neighbour’s Christmas display has been giving me a much needed smile, but perhaps not as he intended. His holiday garden features giant blow-ups of two cartoon characters, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and a snowman, I have dubbed Olaf, in honour of the Disney snowman. Every morning, in the run-up to Christmas, I have…
It was Christmas Eve, 1977, and my brothers and I had finally stopped waking up my parents, in the wee small hours, as we crept a little too noisily along the hall to see if Santa had arrived. My mother, one eye open and one eye closed, would meet us on the stairs, around one…
It’s almost 40 years since Jeffrey Dudgeon successfully changed the law in Northern Ireland. And it took courage as he was living in real fear, under an unjust law: his house had been raided, and he had been arrested and interrogated by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. His crime? Dudgeon was a gay man and homosexual…
Hollywood can’t resist a good love story, but how do you make a movie about divine love and the most famous woman in the world? With great difficulty. Netflix has just spent US$70 million, making a film, simply entitled Mary. The film recounts the events around the birth of Jesus, through the eyes of Mary,…
Two bishops stood on Co. Down hillside, facing each other, both draped in blood red, the colour of the martyr. It was a poignant scene at the weekend, as the Bishop of Down and Connor pondered the stone monument of St Patrick, which was illuminated in red, as the sun went down at Saul, the…
An Irish stonemason, with little education, became one of the great evangelists of the last century. And his story is now entwined with the famous American bishop Robert Barron, himself the son of Irish emigrants, whose Word on Fire network has gone global. I heard the story at St Comgall’s School on the Falls Road…