In a country disillusioned with Catholicism, Ireland’s St. Brigid is having a moment.
Ireland
Posted inDispatches, Faith
The last priests and nuns in Ireland: Exploring the Irish Catholic Church’s steep decline
RTÉ aired two documentaries in January looking at the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland: “The Last Priests in Ireland” and “The Last Nuns in Ireland.” But signs of hope can still be discerned amid the decline after years of church turbulence.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
C. S. Lewis wasn’t a writer of fantasy. He was a teller of hard truths.
C. S. Lewis was gifted with an expansive imagination—but much of his spiritual writing doesn’t flinch from the hard realities of life.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Remembering The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan, the raucous and tragic sage of Irish music
Shane MacGowan once said that he was the one that God would use to save Irish music. Despite a public persona that was often less than saintly, he grappled with faith in many of his iconic songs.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Alice McDermott’s place in the canon of great Catholic novelists
Alice McDermott is back with her ninth novel, joining the elite Catholic company of Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Walker Percy and Flannery O’Connor.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1999: Brian Moore’s Christ-Haunted Fiction
From Brian Moore’s earliest and best known novel, ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne,’ to his last, ‘The Magician’s Wife,’ the mystery of belief has haunted his best fiction.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Is it Ireland’s turn to ward off a toxic populism?
The protest was organized over social media, where it was dubbed “Call to the Dáil,” drawing participants from far-right groups and individuals nurturing a host of grievances and anxieties about contemporary Irish society, from Covid-19 conspiracies to immigration and transgender issues, housing shortages and the economy.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Is a law that will stop most prosecutions of killings during ‘The Troubles’ really about protecting British soldiers?
With so many political and cultural forces arrayed against the Legacy and Reconciliation proposal, why has Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government pressed on?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Seamus Heaney lost his Catholic faith. But his poetry still sought transcendence.
Ten years after his death, commentators and admirers of Seamus Heaney are still looking for new ways to measure his life and work.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Three new books expose the shameful history of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries
In recent years, several books have attempted to piece together what really happened behind the doors of power in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, including Emer Martin’s novel ‘The Cruelty Men,’ Claire Keegan’s novella ‘Small Things Like These,’ and new collection of essays, ‘A Dublin Magdalene Laundry: Donnybrook and Church-State Power in Ireland,’ edited by Mark Coen, Katherine O’Donnell and Maeve O’Rourke.