Three Belgian doctors charged with unlawful euthanasia in a landmark trial were acquitted in the wee hours of Friday morning. When the 12-member jury delivered the verdict after eight hours of deliberation, the courtroom erupted in applause and cheers. The case made headlines in Belgium and around the world because it was the first time […]
The consequences of the one-child policy continue to live with China. The latest demographic news from the world’s largest country is that its birthrate has dropped to its lowest level since the Communist Party took power in 1949. According to Al-Jazeera, the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics has recently released data for 2019 […]
I am a pro-life Democrat. From where I sit, I continue to be horrified by the Democratic Party leadership. They seem to be behaving in ways calculated to drive away all but the most ideologically committed members. Let’s start with Hillary’s defeat in the 2016 elections and the victory of Donald Trump. This came as […]
I was reluctant to see Greta Gerwig’s film production of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Hints of overplayed feminism permeated reviews, and surely no one could play a better Jo than Katharine Hepburn. I was glad I did. Gerwig’s original film adaptation brought this children’s classic to life in ways earlier movie versions did not. Those who […]
Feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare – Naomh Bríd – (c. 450 – 525) one of Ireland’s patron saints. She was an early Irish Christian nun, abbess, and foundress of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare, which was famous and revered. Her feast day is shared by Dar Lugdach, who tradition says was […]
Thomas MacDonagh was born in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, to Joseph MacDonagh, a schoolmaster, and Mary Parker. He grew up in a household filled with music, poetry and learning and was instilled with a love of both English and Irish culture from a young age. A member of the Gaelic League, he was a teacher and […]
A landmark ruling has recognised the right for German pharmacists to refuse to sell the so-called morning after pill (MAP) on grounds of conscience. No such right has ever been recognised in Ireland. The drug is used as a post-coital contraceptive but, when conception occurs, it also prevents implantation in the uterine wall, causing the […]
In a tragic reminder that surrogacy is not only morally fraught, but dangerous, a San Diego wife and mother of two has died giving birth to a baby for another couple. Michelle Reaves was acting as a surrogate mother for the second time for the same family when she died on January 15. Apparently she was the […]
ON THIS DAY: Bloody Sunday – 14 civilians were shot dead on the streets of Derry by British soldiers on 30th January 1972. They had been taking part in a march against internment. Patrick Doherty (31) Was shot from behind as he attempted to crawl to safety from the forecourt of Rossville Flats. He […]
My 6 year-old son has autism and spiky blond hair which won’t stay flat. He loves dinosaurs, and he says he’d rather be cute than strong. He’s a divil, like most kids his age, for eating cake and bouncing on beds, and he has a strange fascination with peeling onions. He can’t see an onion […]
The debate over abortion is not just about women’s reproductive rights. It is also about science. And none of these debates is more heated than foetal pain. Many contend that the upper time limit for abortion should be 20 weeks, as from then on, it can feel pain. Mother Jones – not a scientific journal, mind […]
The haunting old Irish air, Lament for Staker Wallace, rang out in Kilmainham Gaol on Sunday, the majestic sound of uilleann pipes drawing out the old ghosts of this historic building where the 1916 leaders were imprisoned and executed. Famed Wexford piper Mark Redmond was playing no ordinary pipes however: these were the set owned […]