Occasional Scribbles

The text below is an excerpt from an article in 'The Tablet' ofAugust 17/24 (p 10) on the beahiour of Card...

Fr Tony Coote died on Wednesday. This column appeared in June in Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers. Tony's...

This is the editorial in the current issue of 'The Tablet'. It tells a terrible story. And what's most worrying is that the...

It is often reported that Emeritus Pope Benedict XVl/Joseph Ratzinger was inclined to blame the events of the 1960s/70s for much of the sexu...

"The veneer of civilsation is very thin" Matt Harrison served with the United States Army in Vietnam.

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column. Michael Commane On Thursday August 15, I set off on my...

The Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jedraszewski said at a Mass to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising that while Poland is no longe...

Ten per cent of the world’s listed firms generate 80 per cent of all global profits. Firms with at least one billion dollars in revenue...

Many people say that Vasily Grossman is the Leo Tolstoy of the 20th century Grossman was a journailst reporting on the Great Patriotic ...

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev considers Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as the ...

An interesting quote from Napoleon Bonaparte: “The honest man never doubts the existence of God’.

It’s 50 years since the British embassy in Dublin was set alight by an angry crowd demonstrating against the carnage in Northern Ireland. ...

This week’s Independent News an Media Irish regional newspapers’ column. Michael Commane So is the camán a hurley or a hurl? I always...

After the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan Albert Einstein said: “I made one great mistake in my life - when I signed a letter to President...

In July 3.5 million passengers arrived and departed at Dublin Airport. Nineteen thousand people are employed at the airport and on its ...

The ‘Thinking Anew’ column in ‘The Irish Times’ today.   Michael Commane   Have you noticed how politicians come to power pro...

This week’s INM Irish regional newspapers’ column. Michael Commane Have you a propensity to lose things? I’m thinking of items such a...

This poster is on the door of the main entrance to Casement Station Tralee. And Costa the Cat is in residence at the station. He is...

“More than anything, he remembered the sense of togetherness that came into being between his men. “Everyone had spoken openly about t...

On August 13, 1961 Berliners woke up to witness troops of the GDR/East Germnay build a wall dividing their city in two. The GDR in the ...

“The church’s role is to change hearts, not governments.” Pope Benedict XVl to the late Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who was archbish...

Ninety motorists are stopped every day by gardaí for using phones while driving.and that probably is the tip of the iceberg.

St Mary’s University in Twickenham has launched a new guide on deathbed etiquette. It is aimed at helping people suppoprt a loved one a...

On August 9, 1945 Nagasaki   was destroyed  when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city. Thirty-five thousand people were immediately k...

The English translation of Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad is a sensational read. Novikov, an important character in the novel and a senior ...

Last evening on BBC 2’s ‘Newsnight’ Emily Maitlis interviewed finance minister Paschal Donohoe in the Irish Embassy followed by an interview...

This week’s Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column. Michael Commane The Tipperary Wexford All-Ireland semi-f...