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The speech this week to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce given by our Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has been hailed as the first signs of leadership since the recession began. One journalist likened it to Pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s crash landing of US Airways Airbus A320 Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on the 15th January. The […]

With the 1st February, the Celtic feast day of Imbolc is upon us. The light is returning and the snowdrops are blooming. Let us escape from the current financial crises and turn our thoughts to St Brigid whose day it is. It is interesting that there seems to have been a Brigit (the old spelling) […]

This is the Saviour of the world said the shop assistant referring to Obama as the radio brought the Presidential inauguration in Washington into the local chemist’s shop. For a moment I found myself agreeing! Such has been the momentum generated by the rhetoric and the welcome distraction it afforded from the chill economic winds […]

It is easier, Jesus said, for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God could be updated and how hard, we respond, for the Religious to show humility to the Laity. The rich? They have got it made. Their security is in […]

There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind and for Israel the 20th January could be it! The change in the US administration may well close the “window of opportunity” for their equivalent of a fatwa on Hamas. The rain of rockets had to be halted. You cannot live in a bomb shelter […]

I have never heard of anyone making a resolution to be converted to Jesus Christ. In fact I have never heard of anyone resolving to feed the hungry or heal the sick. Usually what I hear is focussed on “low fat diet” or to stay “off the drink”. Our resolutions tend to have a self-centered […]

“They’re bringing religion into Christmas Cards” she said to her neighbour as they looked at a card with the nativity scene! The comment is probably apocryphal but the cards of winter scenes, Robins and berries to say nothing of Santa far outweigh the “religious” cards. So what does the Bible say about the “religious” bit? […]

Last week, Sky’s digital channel, Real Lives, showed the Oscar-winning documentary, “Right to Die” featuring Craig Ewert’s assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic. Craig had been suffering from motor neurone disease and died in the presence of his wife following a lethal doze of barbiturates. As film directors take their craft into increasingly sensitive areas […]

News of food contamination in the developed world travels fast. Sophisticated food testing in a number of European countries detected dioxins in pork fat as far back as September. Towards the end of November the source was traced to an animal food recycling plant in Ireland. When confirmation of high levels of contamination was obtained […]