Michael Kelly is an award-winning writer and broadcaster specialising in religious and social affairs. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, he attended the Pontifical University St Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he obtained degrees in philosophy and theology and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome where he studied social institutional communications. From 2002-2005 he was an Editor in the Central Information Service of Vatican Radio. In this role, he travelled with Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on overseas trips. In 2005, he returned to Dublin to take up the position of Deputy Editor with The Irish Catholic newspaper, succeeding as Editor in 2012. He is a regular contributor to programmes on RTÉ, BBC, UTV, CNN and Al Jazeera. He also have extensive experience offering media training and coaching in the voluntary sector. Mr Kelly is a weekly columnist with Ireland’s largest-selling secular newspaper the Irish Independent and has been published in The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner, The Irish News, The Guardian, Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic World Report, the National Catholic Reporter and the National Catholic Register. He writes from Ireland for Catholic News Service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Micheal finished his stint as Editor of The Irish Catholic in January 2024 and has taken up the position of Director of Public Affairs for Aid to the Church in Need Ireland.
Proposed legislation before the Oireachtas would seriously undermine the right of faith schools to protect their ethos if it passes without amendment. The Education (Amendment) Bill 2012, which was introduced in the Seanad in early January, removes the right for school patrons to agree before a teacher is redeployed from another school. In effect,…
Pro-life campaigners are putting pressure on Fine Gael to keep the party’s pre-election promise not to introduce abortion legislation. The Minister for Health James Reilly announced at the weekend the members of the 14-member ‘expert group’ from the medical, legal and nursing profession which will report to the Government on the issue within six…
The national seminary at Maynooth is to clearly separate the seminary environment from the wider university community The Irish Catholic understands. In a move that will be seen in some quarters as a nod to the past when seminary life was completely separated from the outside world, it is believed that the changes are…
This year will be a time when the relationship between Church and State will have to find a new equilibrium following the rupture of 2011 which culminated in the Government’s decision to downgrade the State’s relationship with the Holy See. The publication of the Cloyne Report provoked considerable anger particularly because of the fact that…