Cork school to launch Catholic Schools Week
Mount Mercy College will be the first school in Cork to host the national launch of Catholic Schools Week next Monday (January 25).
Catholic Schools Week will run from Sunday, January 31 to Saturday, February 6 and is an all-Ireland annual event which invites Catholic schools to give expression in a special way to the ethos of Catholic education. The theme for 2016 is ‘Catholic Schools: Challenged to proclaim God’s Mercy’.
Ms Padraigín Ui Riordáin, the principal of Mount Mercy College, said the annual event “is an opportunity for us to focus on our traditions and at the same time to look forward with anticipation to our future, to the challenge of proclaiming God’s mercy as we promote tolerance, respect and inclusiveness”.
No room for spin at political press secretary funeral
PJ Mara was a “traditional Catholic” who “made friends everywhere”, according to his long-time friend Fr Patrick Claffey, parish priest at St Mary’s Church on Dublin’s Haddington Road.
In his homily at Mr Mara’s funeral, Fr Claffey explained that although the one-time government press secretary and Fianna Fáil strategist may have been known for his flamboyance, he had requested that there be no homily at his requiem Mass, with no memorabilia from his life being brought to the altar.
He had not wanted anything in the Mass that “smacked of the circus”, Fr Claffey said. He described Mr Mara as a man of “real substance” who believed his funeral Mass was a “serious business” that should be conducted in a simple and dignified way. “He certainly knew he was entering a place where spin doesn’t matter so much,” he added.
Mr Mara died on Friday, January 15, aged 73, and was buried on Sunday at Mount Cross cemetery in Kinvara, Co Galway.