Occasional Scribbles

Nothing whatsoever can ameliorate the damage that has been done to the children who were barbarised in institutional homes. Certainly a misu...

Kevin O'Connor's article in yesterday's Irish Times obliges the reader to ask is there a nexus between all of this horror and m...

No doubt the Catholic directory for Ireland for 2010 is being currently prepared. Men will be given titles, such as Reverend Father, Very Re...

At a time such as this when public indignation is high it may well be difficult to say something measured and meaningful. Maybe that is not ...

There is little or nothing to say today on this blog on this Ascension Thursday. Maybe one sentiment and that is that all forms of clericali...

Watching the election countdown is interesting. Fine Gael canvassers were in the Churchtown area last evening. They were polite and knowledg...

According to informed sources the report on the Dublin archdiocese, due out later this month, will carry horrific revelations. Nothing can b...

The election material is pouring in our letter boxes and if you are living in a bye-election area the stuff is falling out of the sky on the...

This is an interview with Pope Benedict during his flight to the Holy Land. It is something of a 'quaint' set up in that the person ...

We are in recession. It looks likely that SR Technics will close its doors as planned with no chance of someone buying the concern. The dole...

On a posting on this blog on May 5 it was said that a priest in a sermon said that we should ask election candidates if they believe in the ...

It certainly has to be a question of lazy journalism. A number of media outlets today have made reference to Pope Benedict as young Josef Ra...

In good weather there must be few places in the world as beautiful as Ireland. Yesterday in West Kerry the top of Mount Brandon was clear - ...

Libertas founder Declan Ganley when asked if Lech Walesa was paid a fee for addressing the party's meeting in Rome commented, "G...

Journalists like priests get stale and it is inevitable that just as the quality of writing can vary so too can the quality of preaching. Bu...

CORI Justice challenges Government in social partnership talks on privatisation of services. Government's proposed reduction in tax rev...

It's difficult to understand how the minds of politicians work. The report below about cycling has elements of madness about it. Right n...

How the mighty have fallen. The lead story on page 29 of yesterday's Guardian runs 'America sunk these pirates, but the Age of Migh...

On Thursday Dublin Bus ran a large size advertisement in the daily press informing passengers of new timetable schedules. The new services w...

Two distinct items in today's newspaper which deserve comment, one concerning paedophilia and the other homosexuality. Archbishop Diarm...

On Sunday morning in Prague in front of the statue of the Czech hero Tomas Masaryk, President Barak Obama gave a sensational speech where h...

This article appears in today's Irish Times . Why there can be no resurrection without a cross PÁDRAIC CONWAY RITE AND REASON: HOLY WEEK...

The icing on the cake! President Obama gave a sensational speech in Prague on Sunday morning. Yes, words are never actions but the speech ha...

On my desk is the April issue of Hotpress . Alongside it is the April edition of Alive . In his editorial Niall Stokes writes about the pope...

A Dominican student writes on the Dominican Oxford blog on April 1 that the Dominican habit is an eschatological sign. Is the Dominican habi...

Nice one. Today's Irish Times has a clever April Fool's gag on its front page. Could anyone imagine Dr AJF O'Reilly or Dr Sm...

The curtains have disappeared. When Irish Rail introduced its new InterCity fleet on the Dublin Cork service, the Spanish built trains came ...

We are living in unprecedented times. The economic situation is so bleak and unpredictable that what was said yesterday becomes irrelevant t...

Anne Marie Houriihane wrote in Monday's Irish Times, ‘He has showed us up – quivering, self-conscious girlies that we are. Casby got ...

When does a noun have an upper case first letter? Is there a rule on the issue? There was a time when school children learned that all prope...

German television ZDF are currently showing a programme on the Krupp family. The final part of the trilogy is on Wednesday evening. It is ...