You have to hand it New York Orthodox Jewish community: the Irish Church leadership could learn a lot from them. When the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio – taking time off from marching in massive crowds against imagined rascism – decided to weld shut the gates of public parks and close down synagogues, […]
The interplay of trauma, existential insecurity, and general woe, and the story of mankind’s belief in another life, in God or in gods, seems to persist throughout the ages. We have the Great Flood accounts in both Gilgamesh and in The Bible — given in one as a story of man’s correction by his gods, […]
The global soul-searching over the issue of racism, contemporary and historic, that has taken place since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May has not escaped Ireland. It has taken many forms, some instructive, others less so. One of the most commented-on has been an investigation of the ways in which the […]
Fun fact: Iconoclasm was last in vogue, in the Christian world, during the reign of Leo the Armenian as Byzantine Emperor, from 815 to 843AD. Since then, most societies have shied away from the destruction of images of Jesus, because, well, it’s not very popular. Until now, anyway. A leading figure in the Black Lives […]
When everything else in life is stripped bare, God is the one certainty that we can cling to.
Ireland has very firm laws on animal welfare when it comes to food production. As might be expected, these laws aren’t in place so much because we love our animals, so much as that they’re in place because the European Union imposed them, and because the agri-food sector is so important to the economy. Having […]
A newspaper editor has accused former President Mary McAleese of “trying to give him a belt of her crozier”, after the former President wrote to the owner of his newspaper to complain that an article about her was “fake news”. Irish Catholic editor Michael Kelly revealed in his newspaper this week that McAleese had taken […]
“History is written by the winners” is a trite adage which was probably first circulated by some losers. Ever since, it has been used to cast a shadow of doubt over every account of struggles between human beings of which history purports to tell us. Searching through our past is a sacred pursuit. It is […]
Actor Brad Pitt has said that he “clings to religion” in an interview with GQ magazine. The star of the newly-released Ad Astra said that he had “gone through everything” in searching for connection. “Like, I cling to religion,” he said. “I grew up with Christianity. Always questioned it, but it worked at times,” he told GQ. […]
The trial of a medical doctor in the Netherlands this week over the euthanasia of a 74 year old woman in 2016 is notable for many reasons, but perhaps most of all by the commitment by the prosecution that even if the doctor responsible is found guilty, she will face no prison time. The facts […]