In the book of Genesis, we hear God tell Cain: “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” And these words echo, in my own heart, each time the media revisits the assassination of John F Kennedy, whose Irish roots run deep into the soil of County Wexford. He was the first…
Relentless Ministry – In a new series written by Priests, we will explore what most priests describe as “Relentless Ministry” and the challenges of being a priest in Ireland today Gary O’Sullivan and ‘Fr John’ have both written recently about the relentless pressure on priests and nobody can dispute that as a genuine issue which…
During my apprenticeship as a rookie journalist, many decades ago, I was taught some rudimentary rules about the law. The first was an emphasis on the difference between ‘the accused’ and ‘the convicted’. There was a sacrosanct rule in every liberal democracy that everyone has the right to be judged innocent until and unless they…
Fr Tom Grufferty When Garry O’Sullivan asked me to write an article on “Relentless Ministry” in the Catholic Church, I had never associated these two words as companions. I then began to investigate the topic myself personally. Here is my response: From the first day of my time at All Hallows College in the…
It was a simple enough question, posed by a priest who had entered religious life as a youth around 50 years ago. “What is a priest’s ‘job’?” My first thought was: bringing the body and blood of Christ to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, the greatest ‘job’ in the world. But that…
The Church presents an ideal vision of marriage but it must also minister to people in their real struggles, Chai Brady hears. As Ireland faces demographic challenges with fewer people getting married and fewer babies being born, there is an open question as to what the future may hold. A recent study by the Iona…
Over all the European countries – and North America – migration and immigration are among the most persistent topics which concern the public. In the crucial German general election, coming up on February 23, it’s the prime issue. The French are obsessed with the topic. In Britain, Nigel Farage’s ‘Reform’ party – deeply critical of…
Saturday August 15, 1998 was a glorious summer day. Like thousands of others, I will never forget it. At approximately 3.05pm that afternoon a massive terrorist bomb exploded in Omagh. Three telephone calls were made, the first at 2.29pm warning that a bomb was going to detonate in the town. Police were clearing the streets…
A major row has broken out between the Trump administration and the Catholic hierarchy in America over the issue of refugees and economic migrants. It is a row that promises to rumble on in the years to come and equally so in Europe, where immigration and asylum-seeking have become possibly the most controversial issue in…
Dear Editor, Three cheers for historian Fr Conor McDonough OP for exposing the ‘paper thin’ reasoning for deposing St Brigid in favour of some pagan goddess. The latter, he tells us, is only mentioned once in the 10th-century manuscript, ’Sanas Cormaic’. She never enjoyed any importance in Ireland. Where, one might ask, does that leave…
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
Chai Brady
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn