It never ceases to amaze me that despite all the wealth, experience and tradition of American cinema, it seldom matches the depth and humanity of the best Iranian films. Asghar Farhadi’s family drama A Separation, for instance, won an Oscar in 2012. I can’t think of many films which combine so successfully deep moral issues, intricate […]
PODCAST: Listen to John Aidan Byrne, Irish commentator based in New York, talk with Michael Churchward, mega yacht captain, author God Waits Outside, recalls moment he was sent to prison in Turkey for crimes he never committed. PRISON HELL: After docking in Turkey, Michael Churchward, a celebrated mega yacht captain, was in for […]
Of all the writing where Pearse elucidates his revolutionary conscience, his poem ‘The Rebel’ is clearest. There is a searing sense of righteous pain in its lines, arising from the sense of a denial of destiny -a betrayal of the dignity of humanity formed in God’s image. It harkens back to Robert Emmet’s speech from […]
Easter is perhaps the most important time of the year to remember those who fought for our freedom, and by commemorating the past, we look forward to the future. We celebrate the various battles in the fight for Irish Freedom and recall with pride the ultimate price paid by many of those involved. For Christians, […]
The stark message of Easter is that we don’t have to be locked down in misery, fear, tears or empty promises anymore, because Christ has opened the way to heaven with Him, and all we must do is prepare.
The Decade of Centenaries Programme that was initiated in 2012 and which is set to end in 2023 has allowed us to revisit and to celebrate some of the great milestones of Irish history. These include the foundation of the Irish Volunteers, the Home Rule and Land Bills, the 1913 Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the […]
A report from the Roman Province of Judea “I, Lucius Tacitus, write from the Province of Judea in the month of Aprilis, the XIX year of the reign of the August Caesar Tiberius. Events have come to pass in the Province this past month which must be brought to the attention of the August Caesar, Tiberius. The Province has long been an […]
PODCAST: Listen to John Aidan Byrne, Irish commentator based in New York, alks with A.D. Ultman, on the rise of political extremism in the US US POLITICAL EXTREMISM: Former Capitol Hill staffer, political scholar, A.D. Ultman, on big money & corruption in American politics & his book, Animal Town, his timely warning about […]
“And the grammy award goes to:” Definitely not Tom Mac Donald! Not in a million years. Unless of course he becomes bigger than the Grammys –which is not an impossibility- and they come crawling on their ailing, failing, broke knees. Mac Donald, a provocative polemicist, has amassed a substantial catalogue of extremely well produced rap […]
“Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day the first day of the session The landlord’s marshal has decreed the rope will finish me” It may have romantic connotations of a rapier wielding highwayman, but the term “Raparee” is actually an Anglicisation of the Irish word Rópaire, and it refers to the end that usually awaited […]
Fr. Brendan has a deft turn of phrase to explain the matrix that is Irish Catholicism.
Ross Douthat is a New York Times columnist who converted ‘willingly’ to Catholicism with his family as a teenager. He begins his book on the character and mission of Pope Francis by positioning himself as a Catholic who believes ‘the Church must stand firm or it’s nothing’. That noted, his tightly written book is a measured, balanced […]