Occasional Scribbles

Below is the Thinking Anew column in today's Irish Times. Michael Commane Stephen Fry's television   interview some weeks ba...

An American blogger was hacked to death in Dhaka today. His crime: he was critical of religious fundamentalism. On Monday in Egypt a journ...

A young articulate woman, living in Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, commented to a journalist on Wednesday that she no longer care...

Between September and October of last year water consumption  in the greater Dublin area dropped  by close to 20 million litres a day. It ...

The last line in today's Gospel reading from St Matthew runs: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the l...

In today's Gospel (Lk 11: 29 - 32) Jesus talks about repentance and in the first reading from the Prophet Jonah (3: 1 - 10) God sees the...

Anyone who saw Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw on the Channel 4 programme last evening will have seen first hand sleaze at work. These two ...

"The neighbourhood is where we get better." Dr Jim Lucey is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Anxiety Programme a...

One of Germany's prime television programmes, the Günther Jauch Show, which goes out on Sundays at 20.45 on ARD, discussed last evening ...

Today is the first anniversary of the death of Jim Harris OP. Below is an appreciation of Jim, which appeared in The Irish Times on Mar...

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani at a fundraiser during the week said of President Barack Obama: "I do not believe that the pre...

Karsten Mühlenfeld, the former Rolls Royce CEO, has been appointed top man at the crisis-stricken Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which was due ...

There are times during the papal Mass at Santa Sabina yesterday where Pope Francis looks cross and bored.

During Lent, Mondays to Fridays, people of all denominations and none are invited to attend a 20-minute meditation in St Patrick's Hall,...

The Archdiocese of Cologne has made public its wealth, which is valued at €3.35 billion. It has been calculated by some experts in church ...

Rapper Tef Poe, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 this morning, gave an account of what it's like to be black and poor in the US. Poe, from S...

Harold Pinter's 'The Caretaker' is running at The Gate. Well worth a visit. A story about relationships of power. Two brothe...

Pope Francis to new cardinals on Sunday. "We will not find the Lord unless we truly accept the marginalised!  "Truly, the Gosp...

The piece below is from the website of the Dominican Order. With the ongoing conflict and fledgling ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the stor...

The right wing AfD party have had success in elections in Hamburg today. The party won more than five per cent of the vote, which means they...

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Fr Tony Flannery he can make good radio. In an interview with Aine Lawlor today he spoke about his cu...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby spoke today in the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Also speaking in the famous church was German Preside...

There is a photograph  in the current issue of 'The Irish Catholic' of Irish bishops attending the Mass of introduction for the new ...

International Airlines Group CEO Willie Walsh was interviewed on the Sean O'Rourke Show this morning. Whatever happens, whether or not...

Good news from Minsk. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a cease fire is to come into effect on Sunday. The good news comes ...

Well worth checking the Irish Jesuit website. How to do things properly.

Below is Michael Harding's column, which appeared in yesterday's Irish Times. Like all writers and talkers, that includes journal...

The column below appears in this week's INM's Irish regioanl newspapers. Michael Commane In the days surrounding the commemor...

Susan Rice, Barack Obama's national security adviser, said in a speech on foreign policy that "the US must walk and chew gum at the...

Rorate Caeli is, to say it mildly, a right-wing Catholic blog. It has a history of stressing its obedience to the pope and all matters C...

Tess on her way to the top of Djouce yesterday. A four-hour walk, which meant a loop, including the ascent of Djouce, 725 metres. Getting ...