In a country awash with sexual perversions it is almost a relief to read of the serial adultery of Tiger Woods. So skewed has our moral compass gone that the philandering of this superb athlete does not seem so remarkable. What makes his fall from grace intriguing is the fact that he had all his liaisons while he was in the limelight as the world’s top golfer. His wife did not know and the journalists, who make careers out of delving into the secrets of the rich and famous, were taken by surprise.

His ability to control the media was in evidence on Friday when he delivered a prepared confession before a hand-picked audience of friends and sympathisers with only three journalists in attendance. They were there simply to take notes – no questions were permitted. After 45 days of therapy Woods was in control.

Addictions are hard to handle and Woods struggled to rationalise his behaviour. “I convinced myself normal rules did not apply…I thought only about myself…I ... Read More »

At this time of the year we have cows calving in the farmyard so it was with some curiosity that I learned of the Mertz glacier in Antarctica calving earlier this month. Apparently the gesticulation period is not as predictable as cows occurring every 50 or 100 years but when the calf is an iceberg the size of Luxembourg it must make quite a splash!

The birth was assisted by another iceberg called B-9B, itself a mere 60 miles long, bumping into it like a gigantic dodgem car. Scientists reckon the pair may have some effect on global ocean circulation.

As I write news is breaking of a massive earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale.

The epicentre was 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live. President Michele Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe." Buildings collapsed and phone and electricity lines are down, making the extent of the damage difficult to determine. A ... Read More »

We have had a famine of resignations in Ireland but recently this has turned into, what for us, is something of a flood. Some have been voluntary like the two politicians who resigned this week. Others like the handful of Bishops whose resignations were involuntary came reluctantly.

The reasons given by the politicians are somewhat obscure. In their explanations the temptation to wash someone else’s dirty linen in public proved too hard to resist. The Bishop’s suffered from the general blindness of society towards child abuse but since they knew about it they were faced with no alternative but to go.

What exactly was the deciding factor that brought them to their decision may never be revealed. What was the straw that broke the camels back, the bridge too far, the action or word that triggered the letter of resignation? We may never know. What is certain is that none of them ever expected to end up this way.

There are no resignations in the ... Read More »

Gender Matters.                    Word on the Week.                                       6^th February 2010.

We are not told in the Bible why God made Adam and Eve instead of Adam and Steve but it makes sense when a short time later he commands them to "be fruitful and multiply".   We are not told why the one man and one woman in lifelong monogamous relationship was the best arrangement to rear a family but we can see ... Read More »

This film, from the director who gave us “Titanic” is the hottest thing to hit the science fiction world. Aided with 3D glasses audiences can see where the $280 million went in making the film and the Director’s bankers can see the $1 billion it netted in the first 17 days!

It is impossible not to be fascinated and enthralled by this action-filled vision of adventure and battles in an iridescent jungle on an alien planet, where hideous, dragon-like creatures appear to leap off the screen, flora and fauna wave in the air and a heroic avatar does battle with a pterodactyl-like beast before subduing it and soaring off on its back.

This is Pandora, an Earthlike-planet with a lush rainforest environment, trees a thousand feet tall, floating mountains and an abundance of life forms, some beautiful and some terrifying.

Into this new world our hero, Jake, is sent on a spying mission. Here the natives, the tall blue-skinned “Na’vi”, (navy blue perhaps!) have long resisted the miner ... Read More »

There is something satisfactory when, in a National scientific competition for schoolchildren the winner out of the 1,000 plus entries was the designer of a home-made stove. It heightens the satisfaction to learn that he did not make it for the cash prize nor for its marketing potential but to have it taken up by Charities working in developing countries.

Richard O’Shea, an 18 year old sixth year student from Blarney, Co Cork, designed his biomass (wood dung and plant material) fired cooking stove out of tin cans. It can be made with a screwdriver, a small knife and a nail! The stove uses small quantities of fuel and produces little or no smoke.

It is reckoned that over 2 billion people in the world depend on fires for cooking. These use a lot of fuel and produce smoke. The beauty of Richard’s simple design is that it can be made from materials readily available. The life-span of the stove was not examined but, given the ease with which it could be made; replacements could form a su ... Read More »

This New Year’s Eve, at a family gathering, I was asked to quote the words of the above Scottish song. Traditionally it is always sung at the start of a New Year, usually by people gathered in an out of door setting who mangle the words! I, coming from Scotland, was asked to supply the words and only just managed to remember the first verse and chorus!

We did make some attempt at the last verse which involves the crossing over of hands, grasping the hands of your neighbours on either side and shaking them in time with the music.

The handshake, of course, is symbolic of friendship and the whole poem reminisces over the old times when the singers were growing up together.

An interesting change took place in the chorus from when it was first penned in 1788. Then the toast was to “Jo”. The Bard’s waywardness with the ladies caused him to substitute the anonymous “dear” five years later and it is this inclusive version which we now sing!

For auld lang syne, my dear, ... Read More »

Word on the Week.                         9^th January 2010.

We thought postmodernity had put it out of the house but in it comes through the back door.   The “A” word was heard in the media just when it seemed adultery had been dropped from the vocabulary.   After all the current descriptions of “having an affair” blunts the impact and to be “in a relationship” sounds almost healthy.

A possible reason is that we are dealing with Biblically literate Northern Ireland where the evangelicals call a spade a spade and not an agricultural implement.   Another reason could be that the one guilty of adultery is the wife of the First Minister who herself was a formidable political figure. &nb ... Read More »

Among the greetings from the East this Christmas came one from someone who was to be in Cebu (in the Philippines) during the early days of January. He was lamenting the influx of Filipinos to worship the effigy of Santo Nino - a representation of the baby Jesus – dating back to 1521. The feast day on 14^th January deflects attention from Christmas and contravenes the second commandment.

In Ireland we are not unfamiliar with relics or statues and recently there has been renewed interest in the Marian shrine at Knock. This occurred when a local “faith healer” prophesied that the Virgin Mary would appear and on the first occasion drew a large crowd which he asked to stare at the sun. Apart from some eye damage nothing miraculous appears to have happened and on the second occasion few turned up. It is not anticipated that there will be a third!

What the Bible says about these things has been helpfully analysed for me recently by James R Edwards in his book “Is Jesu ... Read More »

This week a friend sent me a homily recounting the martyrdom of Bishop Fisher for opposing Henry Vlll’s divorce. He wrote, “in defending the King’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Fisher noted how John the Baptist, as Friend of the Bridegroom, Christ, had laid down his life in defence of marriage, “since,” he said, “the violation of marriage is no little insult to Him who is called the Bridegroom.”

The Pope of the day got involved; “Shortly afterwards, news reached England that Fisher had been created a cardinal by Pope Paul III. The king's reaction was that the Pope could send Fisher the red hat whenever he liked, but he’d make sure by the time it arrived that Fisher would have to wear it on his shoulder, 'for head he shall not have to set it on.’ &l ... Read More »