Cutting, tidying, cleaning up along River Dodder all for free

I met an amazing man yesterday.

Over the last number of weeks cycling along the Dodder between Glassons Bridge, beside the Dropping Well pub and restaurant, and Orwell Park I’ve noticed a man cut away branches and overgrowth along the stone wall. He wore no Dublin City Council overalls. I thought he may have been employed by the Dropping Well, but maybe not as he had worked his way away from the pub.

Again yesterday he was hard at work. Curious, I got off my bicycle and interrogated him. To my disbelief he told me he lived nearby and had over the last number of months been cutting, tidying and cleaning up along the bank of the River Dodder.

Chris Ennis is 77, worked as a meter reader for ESB and took on this job for the common good.

Is Dublin City Council aware of the great work he is doing for the people of Dublin? Probably not. Would it be possible, in the times we live, that they might prohibit him from doing such work.

The man deserves special praise/recognition from DCC.

Thank you Mr Ennis.

Pope Leo invites us to abstain from words of hatred

From Vatican News

“I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from 

words that offend and hurt our neighbour.”

Pope Leo XIV made that invitation at the heart of his message 

for Lent 2026, which was released on Friday.

As Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18, the Pope said 

this liturgical season offers Christians an opportunity to place the mystery of God back at the centre of our lives.

Every journey of conversion, he said, begins by letting God’s 

word touch our hearts, so that we may renew our commitment to follow Christ in the mystery of His saving passion, death, and resurrection.

Pope Leo focused on the importance of listening to God and to 

those around us, allowing ourselves to enter into authentic relationships.

“In the midst of the many voices present in our personal lives 

and in society,” he said, “Sacred Scripture helps us to 

recognise and respond to the cry of those who are anguished and suffering.”

Christians, said the Pope, can cultivate inner openness to 

listening, as God does, by growing in awareness that the 

poor challenge our lives and economic systems, as well as 

the Church.

Pope Leo XIV then turned to how fasting helps open us to 

the deep desire for justice, which he said frees us from 

complacency.

“Precisely because it involves the body, fasting makes it 

easier to recognize what we ‘hunger’ for and what we 

deem necessary for our sustenance,” he said. “Moreover, 

it helps us to identify and order our ‘appetites,’ keeping 

our hunger and thirst for justice alive”.

Fasting, he added, teaches us to govern our desire by 

purifying, freeing, and expanding it, in order to direct our 

desire toward  God and good deeds.

However, we must fast in faith, humility, and communion 

with the Lord, and not in a way that leads to pride, 

said the Pope, adding that other forms of self-denial also 

lead to a more sober lifestyle.

Pope Leo then pointed to an under-appreciated form 

of  abstinence, which is refraining from hurtful words.

“Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding 

harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander 

and speaking ill of  those who are not present and cannot 

defend themselves,” he said. “Instead, let us strive to 

measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our 

families, among our friends, at work, on social media, 

in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities.”

If we do so, we will let words of hatred “give way to words of 

hope and peace.”

Pope Leo went on to emphasise the communal aspect of 

listening and fasting, which can be lived out in our 

parishes, families, and religious communities.

By listening to the cry of the poor and setting our 

hearts on a path of conversion to Christ, we train our 

conscience and improve the quality of our lives and 

relationships, he said.

“It means allowing ourselves to be challenged by reality 

and recognising what truly guides our desires—both within 

our ecclesial communities and as regards humanity’s thirst for 

justice  and reconciliation.”

Pope Leo XIV concluded his 2026 Lenten Message with a 

call for Christian communities to become places where 

those who suffer find welcome.

Listen to our report

Bishop’s guidelines on reposing of remains

Below are guidelines for the use of churches for reposing of remains issued by the bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, Paul Connell.

No need for comment. Maybe just one; are priests and bishops’ coffins not left open?

 

In recent months a practice has developed in some parishes around the use of churches for the Reposing of the Remains of those who have died. This is a practice that usually was held in the home, or in recent years in a funeral home, where family and friends could gather, offer sympathy and support.

Some parishes have asked for guidance on the matter, that while every community wishes to support a family at the time of a funeral, others have questioned if a church is the best place for reposing of remains to occur. In the interests of bereaved families in particular, I would like therefore to provide clarity on this issue.

In looking at the instruction around the nature of a Christian Burial it is clear that the tradition of three stations and two processional routes are at the heart of the ritual, as celebrated over the years. Those three places being; the home, the church, and the place of committal. Each hold their particular meaning that the Christian believes in the understanding of death itself. There is the personal element in the home, the community prayer in the church, and the placing in the care of God in the committal. 

Between each of these there is a procession, which highlights that each of our lives is a pilgrimage to eternal rest. None of these are purely functional, but hold significance, both in the comfort that they bring and in the faith that they profess.

In recent years the station at the home has, quite often taken place in a funeral home, and then from there to the church, and place of committal. However, the use of a church in a manner that makes it like a funeral home breaks this practice and is not faithful to the tradition that we hold.

The element that takes place in the church should always be in the context of faith and worship, as this is the nature and purpose of each church. It is a sign and symbol of the Lord's presence in the community, and the place where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. This point is important for all those who use a church outside the celebration of the liturgy.

I am directing that in parishes where the practice of remains reposing in the church has not begun, that these parishes do not introduce the practice.

For parishes where it has occurred, I am directing that the practice be discontinued as and from 9 February 2026, and I am requesting the parish communities involved to look at other possibilities within the area for hosting this station of the funeral rites. The use of Parish halls or other parish facilities is perfectly in order .

 

 

In a parish church the Reception of Remains to a church should follow the Liturgy designed for this station and following this the community should come forward to offer their condolences. It is imperative that those attending always acknowledge that the Blessed Sacrament is present and that this is a sacred place of worship. Hence the importance that when the remains are placed in front of the Altar, the coffin remains closed.

The way we celebrate the funeral rituals is an important element both in our faith and in our culture. I am requesting that these guidelines be followed, so as to ensure the dignity and respect for both those who have died and the place of worship.

In summary

The churches within the diocese are not to be used for the Reposing of Remains.

 

When the remains of a member of the faithful are received at the church, the appropriate liturgical text provided in the Funeral Ritual should be used.

When the remains are received in the church, placed before the altar, and kept overnight, the coffin should always be closed.

Funeral Directors

Funeral Directors play a vital role for families who have been bereaved. The support and direction they offer families is greatly appreciated by all involved. It is important that they keep in close contact with the priest conducting the funeral liturgy and that they are available to give guidance and direction to families and mourners both inside and outside the church in consultation with the priest concerned.

There is no question that the demand for reposing in churches has come about not just because there is a lack of venue available but also because of the perceived high cost of the use of a funeral home by comparison. Many families experience financial pressure in relation to funerals. 

I respectfully request funeral directors to be conscious of this and accordingly to continue to offer their facilities at reasonable rates to bereaved families, and also to other funeral directors who may not have a funeral home, in a spirit of co-operation and good will.

We’ve much to learn from Archbishop Ronald Hicks

This blog has already brought attention to the Mass of installation of the new archbishop of Ronald Hicks in St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York.
Great music, clapping, flowers, relatives, friends, dignitaries in the sanctuary, humour, joy. In other words, normal human behaviour. And yet, all done with great reverence and dignity and faith too.

https://youtu.be/NkigRQWAuSI?si=3eUvzcQYtYwUJR4m

Letting people know we appreciate them means so much

The week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

It was Oscar Wilde who said sarcasm is the lowest form of wit; you could stretch it and add cynicism. 

No doubt people who tend to be cynical look at life with a jaundiced eye. We are all children of our environment. Every moment of those nine months in our mother’s womb we are developing and accustoming ourselves to our environment.

There are occasions when I can be cynical but I think I can argue there is justification for such an attitude.

Most times when I hear PR people talk about how open, caring and transparent their organisation is I’m inclined to smile, maybe just a little, but yes, I wonder how accurate or truthful are their words.

Watching Caroline Leavitt, President Trump’s press officer, speaking about the killing in Minneapolis I did wonder did the woman really believe what she was saying.

But no doubt it’s the job of PR people to protect their organisations and, indeed, their jobs.

Some weeks ago I wrote a column about the inspiring behaviour of a Luas tram ticket checker. In mid- January I sent the piece to Luas. So far no acknowledgment. I’ve met the checker many times since and he tells me the company has never mentioned it to him.

I’m always saying it’s the little things that say so much about us; they highlight our qualities but they also catch us out when our behaviour is mean or selfish.

Organisations and companies can easily spend large sums of cash on PR and indeed HR but far too often their main purpose is to protect the name of the organisation and its brand.

The same applies to the churches. All the talk that we hear today about safeguarding procedures; would all that be taking place had they not been caught out for their appalling behaviour? 

Only last week at an Irish Rail ticket office I got chatting to the person behind the desk. Within minutes it was clear that he was angry with the company; he felt alienated and forgotten. 

Why? Has anyone thought of sitting down and talking to him about his job; what he finds good about it and what annoys him? Within two minutes of talking to him I realised he was an unhappy punter. 

Of course there are people who are never going to be pleased, but far too often those on the front line, those who are not being paid big salaries can so easily be forgotten.

The late Fergal Quinn, who founded the Superquinn supermarket chain, was famous for his belief that the customer was king/queen. He also treated all his staff with dignity. Why can’t organisations, churches, corporations realise their staff, all their staff, are queens and kings.

You might say it’s the way of the world; it doesn’t have to be.

The Gospels regularly tell us to be inclusive in our attitude. It makes great sense to take heed of that sentiment.

There’s far too much ‘them and us’ in society, maybe that’s why right now there is such unease in the world.

Good management means taking care of staff, listening to them, praising them and taking them seriously. It’s good business too, and pays in the long run.

Sixty year-old man believes Sinn Féin can solve problems

Two strangers get chatting on the Luas. One man has a large shopping bag full of empty plastic bottles and drink cans. He gets chatting to the man beside him. The topic moves to politics. The man heading to the Re-turn facility says to the other he has never been interested in politics or ‘anything like that’. 

He goes on to explain how he has lost all trust in politicians and none of them is doing anything to help him. But he does explain that he has a Travel Pass, which he finds a great asset. He’s not at Travel Pass age but because of heart problems he managed to get the golden card.

He believes that Sinn Fein could improve his lot and hopes they’ll form the next government. He plans to vote for them in the next general election.

Former Dominican priest Tom Brodie 1940 - 2026 - an obit

Former Dominican priest Tom

Tom Brodie

Brodie died in a nursing home in Galway yesterday. He had been ailing for some time.

He was born in Crusheen, Co Clare in November 1940. He attended St Flannan’s College in Ennis and De La Salle College, Waterford before joining the Dominican Order in 1959 in Pope’s Quay, Cork, where he did his noviciate. On taking his first vows the following year, Tom moved to Tallaght, where he studied philosophy and theology. He was ordained a priest on July 10, 1966.

After priestly ordination he attended the University of St Thomas in Rome, where he did post graduate studies in theology. He also was a biblical student at the École biblique in Jerusalem and at Yale in the United States.

Tom spent a number of years in Trinidad, where he taught in the seminary. During that time he wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper. He later used those columns in writing his book ‘What Colour is God’s Skin'. It was a pertinent topic at the time as it was the early days of Black Power in Trinidad.

His first and primary passion in life was the study of the Bible.

He studied Greek in secondary school and it is said of him that while shaving every morning in Tallaght it was his custom to learn 10 Hebrew words. Tom was a serious student. His fellow students knew that he was not a man to waste time on frivolous pursuits. 

He taught biblical studies in the United States and South Africa.

Tom is the author of many scholarly works on the Bible. He attended biblical international conferences on a yearly basis and was recognised among his peers for his scholarship.

He was the first director of the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick, which opened in 2001. Tom remained as director until 2012. The institute closed in 2016.

The Irish Catholic of January 21, 2013 wrote the following about Tom: “This[Tom’s retirement as director] coincided with his publication of Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus, in which he claimed Jesus Christ did not exist as an historical person and led the Irish Dominican province to direct him to withdraw from ministry and cease teaching and writing."

Tom did not accept the findings of the Dominicans. He argued that he was entering into the ongoing debate about the historical person of Christ

On retiring from priesthood he married Peig Mc Grath, a friend over many years, who had worked with him in the Biblical Institute. She cared for him in his failing years and in his final illness.

May he rest in peace.

Tom's body will be lying in state at O'Flaherty Funeral Parlour, Munster Avenue (H91V1K8), Galway on Thursday, February 12, from 5pm. Removal to the Church of Christ the King, Salthill at 6.30pm.

Requiem Mass will be celebrated at 11.00am. 

Afterwards burial in Rahoon cemetery. 

Mass will be live streamed. Link: https://mcn.live/Camera/christ-the-king-church-salthill

Bruce Springsteen’s view of what’s happened in Minneapolis

From the National Catholic Reporter:

In his latest single, "Streets of Minneapolis," Bruce Springsteen offers Americans a soundtrack to the liturgy of protest.

Read more: https://www.ncronline.org/node/323296

https://youtu.be/GDaPdpwA4Iw?si=0Xy0DuCJjkJk_J6A

Archbishop Ronald Hicks clearly in the Pope Leo mould

Below is the link to the inaugural Mass of the new archbishop of New York, Ronal Hicks.

First impressions are impressive. Interesting how the new archbishop speaks both in Spanish and English. The sermon begins at  42.27 minutes.

 https://youtu.be/NkigRQWAuSI?si=3eUvzcQYtYwUJR4m

Silent, unseeing and uncaring, Melania a true Stepford Wife

Justine McCarthy’s column in The Irish Times yesterday. It’s great reading. What are her chances of entering the United States?

Yesterday Trump published on Truth Social a picture of Barack Obama and his wife with heads replaced with heads of monkeys. The US president is a vile man. It has since been removed.

Thank you Justine for you  Friday column.

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With impeccable choreography, the Melania movie was unleashed in cinemas on the same day as the release of the Epstein Files – the Final Avalanche. The former showcases the ultimate Stepford wife for the cast of leading men appearing in the latter.

According to universally-derisive reviews, Melania, a documentary for which the nominal US first lady was paid the obscene sum of $28 million (€23.7 million), demolishes any hope that under that big hat is a head swilling with profound thoughts. Looking stunning and saying nothing really is the sum of Missus Trump’s functions.

Though at 55 she would have been four decades past it for Epstein’s delectation, she is the photofit of discretion for the rich and powerful men he mustered in his orbit. There was former US president Bill Clinton who did, actually, have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky; Elon Musk, Grok owner and father of 14 children by four women; Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who claims he is incapable of sweating; Peter Mandelson, aka the Prince of Darkness and Britain’s erstwhile ambassador to the US; film director Woody Allen, married to his former partner’s adopted daughter; Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates; former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak; and Brett Ratner, Melania’s vanity-movie director, who is captured hugging a woman he says was his then-fiancée on a sofa beside Epstein in one of the released photographs.

Donald Trump’s name is all over the documents, though – as in the other cases too – in no incriminating sense, by legal definition. He is suing the Wall Street Journal for $10 million for reporting that he sent the sex trafficker a 50th birthday greeting by way of a drawing of a naked woman. The sketch was in an earlier dump of Epstein documents. The files are extensively redacted, hiding the identities of powerful men and women who rubbed shoulders with the odious child abuser Epstein. The department of justice denied similar consideration for his victims, dozens of whom have been identified with publication of their personal information, including their images and home addresses.

Not every woman in this horror story is a victim. Epstein’s consort Ghislaine Maxwell is a convicted sex trafficker. Others, like Mette-Marit, Norway’s crown princess, and Sarah Ferguson, are royals or royalty-adjacent. This is a parable of gender-and-class prejudice.

Disposable people

The Epstein saga exposes the contempt that gilded global networkers reserve for the woman of the species, particularly the less privileged members they adjudge to be not-wife material. According to the New York Times, many of Epstein’s under-age victims came from broken homes and poor backgrounds. Some had previously suffered abuse. “They were viewed as disposable people,” the newspaper states.

If only those girls and women had a champion in the White House who could intercede on their behalf. Someone, say, with ready access to the president’s ear and a worldwide audience.

But for Melania to open her mouth would risk smudging her lipstick, so she keeps it shut. She has nothing to say about Project 2025, the blueprint for her husband’s second reign of terror in the White House, starting with his attack on gender equality policies.

She has nothing to say about America’s clampdown on women’s reproductive rights. Nothing to say about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) shooting an unarmed mother dead in her car. Nothing to say when her husband lectured pregnant women to “tough it out” because, he wrongly asserted, they could give their children autism by taking a Tylenol painkiller. Nothing to say after her husband trivialised domestic violence as “a man [having] a little fight with the wife”.

Nothing to say when a jury concluded her husband sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll. Nothing to say about the post- coital hush-money he paid to Stormy Daniels. Nothing to say after he was asked would he stay with his wife if she was disfigured in a car crash and answered: “How do the breasts look?”

Granted, being married to such a man is a terrible cross to bear. Watching the one- time model from Slovenia in the decade since Donald Trump first became US president, the hope endured that someday she would erupt in righteous fury at his objectification of womankind.

Her intervention would be significant in an age when war crimes against women and girls go unpunished, violent pornography is big business and the internet’s corner boys preach misogynistic vitriol, putting woman lives at risk. Melania’s nearly two-hour-long documentary was an opportunity to make that difference. Instead, she used it to parade her partiality to expensive fabrics and staggeringly high heels.

This woman once sparked a fashion frenzy by wearing a jacket emblazoned on the back with the message, “I really don’t care, do U?” It transpires she wasn’t lying. The emperor’s wife has only clothes.

Slow death

To borrow from Noel Coward’s advice to Mrs Worthington, mothers would be well advised not to let their daughters – or sons – near Melania’s stage. Unless one’s burning ambition is to become a shiny trad wife, there are more inspiring role models on the silver screen.

The Pelicot Rape Case: A Town on Trial stars French woman Gisèle Pelicot. She made a difference when she waived her right to anonymity to ensure that her husband’s trial for drugging and raping her and inviting more than 70 other men to rape her too would be reported around the world.

Or go and see The Voice of Hind Rajab, the true story of a five-year-old Gazan girl’s agonisingly slow death in a car full of her dead cousins, killed by Israeli soldiers who also killed the ambulance crew trying to rescue her. “Mummy, I need to go to the toilet,” the child told her mother on the phone as she lay dying among the corpses.

Unlike Melania, Ask E Jean, a documentary about Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump for sexually assaulting her, did not get a razzmatazz cinema release with branded popcorn. In fact, you won’t find it in any cinema, because everyone’s too scared of Donald’s revenge.

Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice reignited the Epstein scandal when it was published after Virginia Giuffre’s death by suicide last year. “Passed around like a platter of fruit” by Epstein and his pals, she survived long enough to rock the world with her revelations. Because, for her, saying nothing was not an option. Because saying nothing is collaboration.