At the heart of Sinéad O’Connor’s new memoir is her sense of transcendence and her longing for it, as well as the depth of her religious imagination since childhood.
Ireland
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
‘Father Ted’ poked fun at Catholic Ireland, but only an audience steeped in faith would appreciate it
“Father Ted” can be seen as both a relic of an Irish moment and a humorous, but serious, argument against the confessional state.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
On Bloomsday, you can thank the Catholic Church for the humor in James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’
Bloomsday is an ideal time to find the humor that springs forth in ‘Ulysses.’
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
A coroner ruled that victims of 1971 Belfast massacre—a priest and 9 lay Catholics—were ‘entirely innocent’
A coroner in Northern Ireland ruled that a priest and nine lay Catholics who were shot dead by British troops almost 50 years ago were “entirely innocent” and their deaths were unjustified.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Belfast bishop urges young people to get off the streets as Catholic-Protestant violence escalates
The Catholic bishop of Belfast urged politicians to be more careful about their language as the city was engulfed in nightly violence.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
What has the Catholic Book Club been reading?
The two most recent selections by the Catholic Book Club couldn’t have been more different: A look at Thomas Jefferson’s quixotic attempt to rewrite the Bible, and Niall Williams’s richly evocative novel about a small village in the west of Ireland.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
He resisted writing about typical Irish tropes for so long. Now, John Banville is embracing his roots.
Something has changed for the novelist John Banville in the last 15 years. In a twist worthy of his own byzantine fiction, Banville has adopted a new persona and writing style, and even—perhaps—a changed attitude toward “the Irish thing” he once derided.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
What does it mean to be both Irish and American? Embracing solidarity with today’s immigrants.
Americans with Irish ancestry have always balanced patriotism with an appreciation of their roots. And their identity should include solidarity with today’s immigrants.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
What the Irish Potato Famine and Covid-19 have in common: an unnecessarily high death toll
Victim-blaming and a worship of the free-market system made the Irish Famine much worse. The death toll from Covid-19 shows we have not fully learned from the past.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
When the Irish fought for Mexico against America: the little-known legend of the ‘San Patricios’
From 1846 to 1848, in the worst years of the potato famine in Ireland and during mass emigration to the United States, one of the toughest units of the Mexican armed forces battling the invaders from “El Norte” was the Saint Patrick Battalion, known in Mexico as the ‘San Patricios.’