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 […]
In 1630, the Puritan colonist of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthorp, used the image of the “City on a vision of purpose and destiny – which he believed would fail or thrive before the eyes of the world. “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes […]
The banjoist with the British folk rock band, Mumford and Sons, has provoked a wearily-familiar Twitter storm by having the temerity to read a book by American journalist Andy Ngo which exposes the worst behavior of Antifa. Ngo’s book, Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy has become an Amazon bestseller. It’s a well-researched account […]
Alice! A childish story take And with a gentle hand Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined In Memory’s mystic band, Like pilgrim’s withered wreath of flowers Plucked in a far-off land. What is it that draws us back to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Alice for short), both individually and collectively? What is it that makes Alice, in the words of literary […]
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” Thomas Sowell There is a twitter account named Thomas Sowell Quotes, and its popular because a quote from Thomas […]
The Rural Independent Group has welcomed Seachtain na Gaeilge and called for a renewed focus on the future of the Irish language, saying a language defines a people, a culture and that “both are inseparable”. “Seachtain na Gaelige provides an opportunity to showcase our language and shine a light on the need for the State […]