On average one abortion is carried out every day at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, one of the country’s leading maternity hospitals, in 2019, the first full year of operation of Ireland’s new abortion law. Master of the Rotunda, Fergal Malone told RTE recently: “In general, we see five patients a week before 12 weeks gestation...
Lyrical, beautiful, profound, meditative. These are only some of the words that come to mind after watching ‘A Hidden Life‘, the new movie from Terrence Malick, which tells the tale of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refused to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler during World War II and suffered the consequences. It...
Over the New Year, the BBC ran a new three-part version of Dracula. It was unusual to say the least. Dracula was played as ironic, post-modern, cynical and smart-alecky. Van Helsing, his nemesis, was no longer a man but (wait for it), a nun. And not just any old nun, but an atheist nun, at...
Human rights arose because of Christianity. No, they arose despite Christianity. This debate has been given added impetus with the publication last year of ‘Dominion’, by the historian Tom Holland. Holland is a non-believer, but a sympathetic one. His book traces the ways in which Christian beliefs have shaped Western civilisation, including the development of...
Minister for Health Simon Harris has attacked a parish in Tullamore for a stating that IVF is incompatible with the Catholic faith. In doing so, he has stepped far outside his role as a Government Minister. He needs to mind his own business, which is precisely what some people have been telling the Church to...
Christmas comes around and our political leaders issue their Christmas messages and every Christmas they fail to mention the specifically religious and Christian meaning of the season. It is very peculiar, and childish. It is indicative of the stunted nature of Irish political development, a long and unhealthy reaction to the years of Catholic dominance...
Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice you will want couples to receive accurate information about the health of the baby they are expecting. A terrible case that occurred in Holles Street earlier this year shows that some of these tests are not as accurate as advertised. In this instance, a chromosomal abnormality was detected where...
Every year the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development issues its PISA report that details how 15-year olds around the world are doing in school. Academically, ours are doing pretty well, relatively speaking, as our media reported a couple of weeks ago. What was not reported, however, is that they are doing much more badly...
In his new work “Dominion; The Making of the Western Mind“, historian Tom Holland highlights the gigantic and often unacknowledged role Christianity has played in shaping Western civilisation. That includes shaping the thinking of some of Christianity’s greatest critics. Often, when they attack Christianity, they are drawing on Christian values without even knowing it. Holland,...
Maria Steen of The Iona Institute and pro-choice campaigner, Dr Peter Boylan, had a high-profile, much-commented on clash when they appeared on RTE’s Clare Byrne Live a couple of weeks before last year’s abortion referendum. In his recent book ‘In the Shadow of the Eighth’, Dr Boylan gives his account of the campaign and the...
