Corbyn replies to Blair

Jeremy Corbyn's reply to Tony Blair. Blair who put British boots on Iraq soil said: "Even if you hate me don't take Labour over the cliff edge."

“We’re the one putting forward ideas, so I don’t do personal, I don’t do reaction, I don’t do abuse. Life is too short and it devalues the political process. I think we should try and enhance the democratic life of this country, not reduce it to that level.”

We waste 1.3 billion tonnes of food every year

Before Europe, Britain, Ireland talk about the drain it is on a nation to take more 'migrants', they should remember the following.

If the amount  of food watsed around the world were reduced by 25 per cent there would be enough to feed the planet.

Every year the world wastes 1.3bn tonnes of food. Forty five per cent of all fruit and veg and 35 per cent of all seafood is wasted.

Developed countries waste between 30 and 40 per cent of all all food. Developing countries waste between five and 16 per cent.

Martin Crowe OP

Martin Crowe, an Irish Dominican priest, died in Wexford Hospital today. He was 71.

May he rest in peace.

German second best

This year 5,154 students sat the Higher German Leaving Cert Paper compared to 4,722 last year and 2,118 students did the Ordinary Level  compared to 2,135 last year.

26,798 students sat the French papers this year.

8.6 per cent of students sitting the Higher Level German Paper received an A1 grade whereas 6.4 per cent of students sitting the French Higher Paper received an A1.

Why are there so few studying German?

285 students sat Russian and 70.5 per cent received an A1 grade on the Higher Paper.

Cycling through red

There has been much media fanfare about the new fines system intorduced for offending cyclists.

Every weekday morning between 08.00 and 09.45 legions of cyclists break the traffic lights at the junction of Harrington Street and Camden Street on Dublin's southside/

There is never a garda presence to stop the trend.

It's a similar story around the city.

Francis is a wily old Jesuit

This week's INM Irish regional newspaper column.

Michael Commane.

I came across the following quote from the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin in The Irish Catholic of July 29.

"...  there are signs within the Catholic Church that some - even young people - are seeking refuge from the challenges of life by adapting ways of the past and are retreating from dialogue with the present into the false security of imaginary better times. Conformist Catholicism is not the answer."

It set me thinking about a lot of things.

Maybe it’s to do with growing older, and looking back. Was it Plato who criticised the youth of his day for not showing respect to their elders?

I was ordained a priest in 1974, Paul VI was pope. The Catholic Church in Ireland still spoke with authority and had real power. But there was an excitement in the air. The church was going to become more a ‘people’s church’ and in far off South America they were talking about liberation theology. 

When you walked into a sacristy you’d meet the priest who was against all that was happening and then you would meet the man who was excited and delighted with what was in the ether.

I remember cycling through southern Germany and meeting priests who were so full of ideas. Young people were best of friends with their local priest. And all the time it seemed as if Paul VI was allowing things to happen. 

Whether he approved or not was not clear but to many it seemed he was going with the flow. More or less. Even in Rome the men in the long cappa magnas were becoming something of a joke. I remember it well. I lived in the city between 1974 and 1976.

Then they elected this chap from Venice, Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul l. It surely was going to be reform full steam ahead. He spoke a different sort of language than the old guard and he had such a smile.

The smile didn’t last long and in comes Karol Wojtyla - Pope John Paul II, the man from Cracow. Slowly but surely the real smiles and the real hope began to disappear. We were back to a centralised and authoritarian-run church. 

And no wonder. Karol’s world had been greatly influenced by the nazis and the communists. How could anyone escape two such brutal political systems without being somehow damaged?

The appointment of bishops became ever more shrouded in some sort of centralised paranoia. All the time while the secular world gave the appearance of growing ever more transparent the church was becoming more secretive and closed.

Priests left in their droves. Young people were no longer best of friends with their local priest.

My generation of priest is today considered by many younger ‘zealots’ as that group of people who failed the church.

I think it’s just that point at which Diarmuid Martin might be hinting.

It seems there is now a retrenchment happening and a growing group of people are saying that ‘my generation’ failed so it’s time to return to the safe old ways, even if that means a much smaller church.

Pope Francis seems to have similarities with Albino Luciani/Pope John Paul I. He smiles a lot. He uses language that is understood by people like me. He wears ordinary shoes and he doesn’t seem to give too much thought to fancy liturgical vestments. But for him to do anything is like trying to turn a giant aircraft carrier out at sea. 

All those careerist clerics, quietly, secretly lying in wait. God help us. But Francis is a wily old Jesuit. 

Motorbike helmets

Why are the majority of motorcycle helmets in Ireland black in colour? Surely for visibility purposes they should be white or at least a bright colour.

It seems almost impossible to buy a white one.

Inspiring people

Yesterday the feast of St Dominic I had the good fortune of celebrating Mass with the Dominican Sisters in Dún Laoghaire. A first.

Of course, a superficial glance, but often the most lasting of impressions, impressive women. Got talking to Constance/Fionnuala Warde. She told me she spent 40 years teaching in Wicklow. Her smile was infectious. Imagine to feel so energised and real at 91.

Some days earlier I met 83-year-old Kevin Condon, not for the first time, home on holiday from Australia. Kevin is an Irish Dominican working in Melbourne. A man full of life, fun and roguery. Clearly someone who is in touch with people and enjoys his life and work. But maybe most of all, a man of grace.

It's nice, consoling too, to meet inspiring people, funny people, people with whom you can laugh. Real people.

Saint Dominic

Today is the feast of St Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order. 

He was born in Spain in 1170 and died in 1221.

Dominic set out with six followers in 1215 to talk about the Gospel in the new developing cities in Europe.

It would seem he'd have much to say about the world of today and how the Dominicans are responding to that environment.

Terence Crotty homosexual story back in the media

The Irish Dominicans make it on to 'The Irish Catholic' again this week. This time it's the story of the Terence Crotty comment at Mass, which has already been referred to on this blog.

According to 'The Irish Catholic' the Dominican provincial, Gregory Carroll seems to have written to Patrick Donovan, who was offended by Terence Crotty's words after the Gospel in which it is reported he said homosexuals were 'intrinsically disordered'.

The provincial Gregrory Carrol is reported to have spoken to Terence Corrty about the issue.

It is noteworthy that the provinical wrote to Patrick Donovan.

This sort of 'clerical nonsense' has been coming down the tracks for some time now.

Had this specific issue not made it to the media, the 'right-wing clerical operation' would trundle on. Had someone not got the common sense to bring Terence Crotty's words to the media would the provincial have done anything?

What will it be next? Who is the next person to be offended by right-wing clerical fundamentalism?

In this week's 'Irish Catholic' Mr Donovan is reported to have said that Terence Crotty added: "gay people have little purpose in God's 'greater plan' ".

Terence Crotty is student master of the Irish Dominican province, an appointment made by the provinical Gregory Carroll.

Career clericalism or preaching the Good News?

Tusk has eye on the ball

President of the European Council Donald Tusk has said that he fears political contagion from the Greek crisis.

"The emergnce of a common cause between far-right and far-left groups has been a precursor to some of Europe's darkest moments over the past century.

"It was always the same game before the biggest tragedies in our European history, this tactical alliance between radicals from all sides. Today, for sure, we can observe the same political phenomenon."

Perfectly said by the former Polish prime minister. And so worrying.

Japan remembers but the world seems to forget

Hiroshima has marked the 70th anniversary of the moment the city was flattened by an atomic bomb with prayers, a moment’s silence and vows to redouble efforts to halt nuclear proliferation.

On a sweltering day in the Japanese city, tens of thousands of people lowered their heads and stood in silence at 8.15am, the time the bomb was dropped on 6 August 1945, killing 80,000 people instantly and another 60,000 in the months that followed.

Doves were released into the morning sky and a Buddhist temple bell tolled as people across Japan marked the anniversary of the first nuclear attack in history.

On Sunday, a similar event will be held to remember the second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki. More than 70,000 people died.

Eric Schlosser's 'Command and Control' tells a frightening story of how insecure nuclear arsenal is around the world, in all seven countries that have nuclear weapons. And that includes some terrible security breaches in the US.

Schlosser argues that we have become far too blasé about nuclear weapons and points out that what was dropped on the Japanese cities in 1945 was a tiny inefficient bomb compared to what is in storage today.

Letter from Dominican Sisters in Iraq to the Order

The piece below is from the international website of the Dominican community at Santa Sabina Rome.

It makes for an interesting read.

Dear Brothers, Sisters and Friends,

As we approach the first anniversary of our displacement, we look back and recall the past 12 months. We undertake this recollection to call to mind what the Lord has done for us, and how He accompanied us throughout the night of Aug. 6, 2014 to be displaced with His people. 

This memory impels us to pray to the Lord so that we might be enlightened to understand His will for our lives during this crisis. Doing so, we would like to share with you our vision, our hope, and also our fears. Taking this as our best opportunity to thank you for being with and accompanying us in our journey, breathing in us the spirit of courage to continue on our way.

Remembering last August, the words of the Psalm 124: 2-3 come to our mind: “If the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive.” 

It was really a dark night when we left, not knowing what to take with us or what to leave behind. Christians were everywhere on the road, not knowing what direction they should take. The shadow of ISIS’s hatred surrounded everything, and we understood little of what was happening. 

When we eventually arrived in Kurdistan, many people were homeless in the street; they were like sheep without a shepherd. After few days in Erbil, we realized that our towns in the Plain of Nineveh had been taken by the ISIS, and our return became a distant and uncertain dream. 

To add insult to injury, it was not only ISIS that increased our loss and our anguish, but also our non-Christian neighbors, our friends in the neighboring villages, whom we served, taught and gave treatment—they betrayed us in times of trouble and crisis.

It was not easy to accept the fact that we were displaced people, almost abandoned by the Iraqi and Kurdish governments whose initiatives and acts were not up to the level we expected. The church took the responsibility for us, trying to gather and support the IDPs ((Internally Displaced Persons) who were scattered all over the region of Kurdistan.

As a community, realizing how dramatic the condition was, we thought of ways to mitigate the crisis and help people with their basic needs. We started our projects with empty hands, but with the help of our Dominican Sisters and Brothers, our friends, and different organizations, we were able to provide the IDPs with food and non-food items. 

We distributed blankets and mattresses (for 5,000 families); milk, diapers, home ware, towels, soap, and summer blankets (for 10,000 families); shoes (for 740 pupils); 5,000 air-coolers; 600 refrigerators, and 400 water-coolers. 

Although some of these items were distributed for the IDPs in general, our focus, however, was on the displaced families who rented houses; they are paying significant money for rent and many of them do not have any income.

Additionally, we thought of children who were lost in the midst of this chaos. We opened two kindergartens where children can come for free, and co-operated with some organizations to open charitable clinic for the IDPs. 

We have just got a license to open a primary school, also for free; we rented a place and hope it will be for the benefit of the IDPs. The aim of this is to show the IDPs the loving care of the church.

Having said that, we have to admit that work with and for the IDPs was not always manageable. There were some challenges that really burdened our mission. There are so many IDPs that sometimes we feel as if our work is inconsequential. 

Also, we were not prepared for this kind of work, nor have we skills to deal with it. Most shocking was the unexpected death of 10 sisters (most of them were in their 70s) in a very short period of time (three months).

Despite that, our ministry continues to be strengthened by the Lord who blesses our efforts no matter how modest they are. Being occupied with such projects, we do not forget our mission to preach the word of God for our troubled people. 

Since winter, some of our sisters have been preparing 400 children for First Communion in six groups. The last First Communion celebration was on July 12. 

Moreover, the sisters will start preparing another 100 children for First Communion in towns and villages in Erbil and Duhok.

Additionally, sisters continue to go to the IDPs camps to minister: give talks, form groups of young people to have different spiritual exercises, pray with them, arrange Masses (we still remember vividly the first Mass two of our sisters attended at one the IDPs camps when they had no altar to pray, so they used a desk and one of the sisters covered it with her scapular as an altar cover). 

The main aim of our work is to make sure that IDPs know that they are not ignored or abandoned by the local church.

Thank God, we have just had our annual retreat conducted by Fr Ifram Saqat, OP who is a Biblical scholar and a psychologist. 

This helped us to make an interior journey and to recognize kindness, mercy and passion in ourselves and others through forgiveness and reconciliation. We were 68 sisters. They were very blessed days. Hopefully, it will be for the benefit of each sister.

Now, as IDPs, and with the rest of our people, we do face everyday challenges. We wonder how long this will last.

Our hearts are filled with sadness and overwhelming grief. We wait but we get nothing, we think but do not understand.

What is next? No one knows. Where are we going? Everyone is lost. Yes, we do have shelter but our hearts are anxious and the relationships are truly troubled and the reality is bitter. Most elites have already left, and many are thinking of leaving the country because of the unhealthy condition in which they live.

Hundreds of IDPs are living in small, dark and damp (cubicles) caravans. With the help of Pontifical Mission and Oeuvre D’orient, we are working to provide flats for the IDPs. There is an unfinished building of five floors; we thought of building (146) flats in the second and third floor. We depend on people of good will who help the IDPs live with dignity and hope.

We ask you to continue to pray for us. And, thank you for being with us over the past 12 months.

Thank you very much and May God Bless you.

Sister Maria Hanna, OP

Prioress

How the familiar and alien co-exist side-by-side

The piece below appears in this weeks's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane
I’ve often said it here that it’s the little things that tell the story, the little things that so often give us away.  I never meant that in the shape of a key.

Cycling home from work last week I stopped to buy groceries, came out of the shop, unlocked my bike and cycled home.

I arrived at my gate, hand in pocket. No keys. Try again, both pockets, back pockets. No keys. That sinking feeling. Don’t really believe that they are not in my pocket, try again. But they’re gone. Gone for real.

I had them when I unlocked my bicycle. That was about three kilometres away. Make an instant decision to retrace my steps. I cycle back to the shop. This time on the wrong side of the road. I know. It was a dangerous thing to do but I was sure that I would find the keys. There would be little point in cycling on the other side of the road. Kept one eye on traffic and used the other to scan the terrain all around me. No luck.

Went into the shop, which was busy. Asked at every check-out. No keys. Cycle up to the Garda station. No luck. But the garda did produce a large drum of assorted keys. Clearly I’m not the only person to have lost keys. And in the drum there were loads of car keys, mortice keys, every sort of key you could imagine, minus mine.

I decided I’d call into a number of shops and ask if anyone had handed in keys. Felt a bit of a clown doing it but there was no alternative.

Shop after shop said no. One or two people asked for my telephone number in case someone handed in keys. I thought that was nice of them.

I cycle that road every day to and from work. Indeed, I have been cycling it for many a long year. 

What amazed me are all the shops I knew nothing about, especially all the restaurants and all the different styles and nationalities. Every time I opened the door of a restaurant I felt I was entering another world, so different from the road outside. The road is so familiar to me, the restaurants, with the exception of two, were simply foreign territory. That struck me as strange, how the familiar and alien can coexist side-by-side.

We have that great way in Ireland of saying that things could always be worse. So too with my keys. 

About a month ago I had ‘downsized’ the bunch and taken off the car key. I seldom drive the car so there was no point in keeping it on the bunch. And about five years ago I gave a neighbour a spare key of the hall door. I still have no key to the back door. Three other keys are also missing.

Next morning I went back on reconnaissance. Again, no luck. Called to the Garda station. Looked into the big drum for the third time. No sign of my keys. I’m hoping they will not arrest me for wasting Garda time.

Twenty years ago I lost keys, again while cycling. I retraced my steps and fortunately found them. I also lost keys on a beach. Lady luck worked again. A kind neighbour walked the beach before high tide and found them.

I’m still hoping. St Anthony?

Believe it or not, the day I lost the damn keys I had earlier been talking to someone about keys and leaving a spare hall door key with a neighbour.

See, it's the little things.

The rise of Jeremy Corbyn

Alice Houbart is a 20-year-old politics student from Brighton who joined the British Labour Party after the election.

She attended a meeting in Luton addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, who is now favourite to succeed Ed Miliband as leader of the British Labour Party.

"It is the first time in our lives there is someone in Labour we can identify with," she said.

Media reports bishop of bling on €10k a month

The diocese of Limburg has been reviewing the pension it pays its former bishop, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst - bishop of bling - diocesan spokesman Stephen Schnelle said without commenting on media reports that Tebartz-van Elst received the sum of €7,000  a month from Limburg in addition to his monthly Vatican salary of about €3,000. "The pension agreement provides for an adjustment if a new salary is paid. The diocese is also discussing this with the Vatican," he said.

Tebartz-van Elst, a strict conservative cleric who was fined for lying under oath about another scandal concerning a first-class flight he took to India, was able to spend so much money without supervision because he took most of it from a special unreported fund that many German bishops have at their disposal.

What are the salaries and pensions of bishops, archbishops and cardinals?

Martin's wise observation

"... there are signs within the Catholic Church that some - even young people - are seeking refuge from the challenges of life by adapting ways of the past and are retreating from dialogue with the present into the false security of imaginary better times. Conformist Catholicism is not the answer."

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.

Might it be that the archbishop has seen and heard a thing or two?

Music summer school at Cistercian Abbey Roscrea

Ian Callanan, who was a Dominican student for a number of years, is running a five-day summer school in liturgical music at Cistercian College Roscrea from Tuesday, August 4 to Sunday, August  9.

The Cistercian Abbey is on the Tipperary Offaly border and is set in exquisite countryside.

For information on the course contact Ian Callanan at 086 - 249 0779 or log on to www.musicministry.ie.

Ian has had a long association with the Irish Dominicans.

The art of fixing things

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane
My late parents had two pairs of great hands. My mother did the most intricate embroidery work.

I still have a quilt on my bed which she made. She also made magnificent rugs and beautiful knitted pullovers. And she managed to do it in her old age when her hands were gnarled with arthritis.

My father was a mechanical fitter. He worked in Killeen Paper Mills until retirement age and then moved to Smurfit Paper Mills where he worked until he was 82.

Three years ago I met a former colleague of his, who told me he was the best there was.

And then just last month, by an extraordinary coincidence, I met a man, who had spent a summer holidays working in Smurfits during his university years. It was 1978 and he could still remember my father and how good he was at his job. What a story to hear about one's Dad.

But maybe it was because my parents were such craftspeople that they never really trusted me to thread a needle or solder a broken electrical connection. Whatever the reason, I'm not known for having the finest pair of hands. It annoys me. And to make things worse I have a friend, who is an engineer, who often casts scorn on my attempts in the world of DIY. He too annoys me.

Over the years I have done bits and pieces, usually under supervision. In the Dominican priory in Rome I was the helper on a job installing a telephone system.

Well, my task was just a matter of pulling cables and boring holes in walls. I suppose something not considered high-tech grade.

And yet, I have to admit that I love messing about with plugs and sockets and trying to fix things. Though with modern circuit boards, the chances of my fixing something are becoming more and more remote.

Still, every now and again, I get a chance to do a bit of DIY. On Friday evening I heard an intermittent beep in the house. Could not make out from where it was coming and eventually it stopped and I forgot about it.

Fast asleep I was suddenly awoken by a non-stop beeping sound. It was 02.00 and the noise, at least at that hour in the night sounded loud to me. It might well disturb the neighbours.

After an initial investigation - that sounds fancy - I decided it was the burglar alarm. I had no idea what was wrong. I went downstairs to the display panel and fiddled about. It so happened that I had the code to get into the maintenance programme.

After messing about for about five minutes and saying a few silent curse words I discovered that the battery on the alarm was low. I managed to stop the noise. How, I don't know.

Again, I forgot about it. That is until it started beeping again the following day and this time it really was annoying. Eventually I opened the electrical circuit box, disconnected the battery, took down details and went off to a suppliers and bought and installed a new battery.

Delighted with myself. Just the fun of doing it and getting it right gave me a certain satisfaction. And then just imagine had I called out an alarm company to 'fix' it?

That surely would have cost me a minimum of €100.00. The battery cost me €16.35.

I'm back thinking of my parents and their generation. The things they made, fixed and repaired. We sure do live in a throw-away society. It can't be good for us. It’s not.

Rain drops falling ....

The picture below does not tell the true or complete story.

Yesterday, the last Sunday in July, it rained all day. At least it did when Tess was out walking. In a short 90-minute stroll near the Hell Fire Club we were all drenched to the skin, even with waterproofs.

Can Irish Water do anything about this?

The 'lapsed' Clare Short

"Everyone leaves some scratches behind them. I think that's what immortality is."

Former Biritsh Cabinet Minister and member of the Labour Party was interviewed on BBC 4's 'Reflections' this morning.

She spoke of being a born, raised and lapsed Catholic. And she later became a 'lapsed' member of the British Labour Party.

She was Seretary of State for International Development in the Blair government from 1997 until her resignation in 2003.

In the programme she spoke glowingly of John Smith, who was Labour leader before Tony Blair. She believes that Blair helped destroy democracy within the Labour Party and holds him responsible for the disaster of Iraq.

The opening quote is a comment Short made in today's programme.

The Irish Tea Party

Anyone who is following what's going on in the Republican Party in the US at present could well see a parallel with what might be happening in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The Tea Party seems to have many like-minded people, growing in number, in the Catholic Church.

Maybe a realated issue: there are 58 words in the opening sentence in the Opening Prayer (Collect) of today's Mass.

Catholics jump ship

Figures released show that 2014 saw a record number of people leave the Catholic Church in Germany.

Last year 217,716 paid-up Catholics jumped ship.

Approximately 24 million are Catholic and 23 million Protestants in a population of 80 million.

Extra columns

The INM column that appears on this blog is originally written for INM Irish regional newspapers. Up to now the column has been appearing in the regional newspapers two weeks  in the month.

From this week until the end of August the column will appear on a weekly basis.

Battle against malaria

The world's first malaria vaccine has cleared one of the final hurdles prior to being approved for use in Africa.

One child dies every minute from malaria.

Sheep in the toilet

Guess what this is?

It's the interior decor of a toilet in Irish Rail's InterCity Spanish-built trains.

It seems they are repainting the toilets. And this one at least is painted using a rural setting.

Interesting.

Interior wall of  toilet on Irish Rail InterCity train.

The empty tomb

Today is the feast of Mary Magdalene.

Mary stood at the tomb. No sign of Jesus so she speaks to this man whom she thinks may be the gardener.

No, he's no gardener. She is talking to Jesus.

Isn't it really the most extraordinary thing in the world to say that word resurrection.

We rattle it off  in all sorts of places and at all sorts of occasions and it doesn't cost us a thought.

It is 'extra-ordinary'. Surely it's the engine of our faith and isn't it odd that there is so little discussion about it. And all the other 'religious' issues we get so worked up about.

David says: "My soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I come and behold the face of God."

What at all is resurrection? Best of all to say nothing? Surely not?

The closing of Benbulben

An item on Morning Ireland today said that because of the Cabinet meeting in Lissadell House today Benbulben would be closed.

How is it possible to 'close' Benbulben?

There's never an excuse for rudeness and bad language

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane

A work colleague, who is eight months pregnant, came to me on Monday with two stories.

She had been out shopping on Saturday and while queueing at the check-out desk the man in front of her, realising she was pregnant, offered her to go ahead of him. She was really impressed with his action.

A few days later she was attending an ante-natal clinic. There were no spare seats available so she was left standing. But she did notice that a young man was sitting down in one of the seats and she was surprised and even somewhat annoyed that he did not offer to give her his seat.

Manners are a funny sort of thing and from time-to-time the subject features on radio programmes and on letter pages. Earlier this year it featured on the Joe Duffy Show.

I can recall how my late father when he was old would often speak of incidents he experienced while travelling around Dublin by bus. Sometimes he would be greatly impressed with the kindness of passengers and bus drivers. On other occasions he would be saddened by their bad manners and rudeness.

It’s funny how we can rub up people the wrong way or how we can be offended and annoyed by the actions of other people.

It’s awful to see people fighting and shouting profanities on the street. And it is also horrible to hear and observe people taking part in that exercise we call road rage. Indeed, calling it road rage seems to gloss over the rudeness and vulgarity that is actually perpetrated. That ever-so elegant car and then those crude expletives. Being rude and vulgar is certainly not a prerogative of any one social class. Far from it.

How do you find the use of vulgar or bad language? Do you use it? When did you last use the F-word? Is it just a word or is it something more than that? Whatever it is, its use in Ireland now seems universal.

I never once heard my mother or father say the F-word. Over the years I found myself using it more and more. And the habit began to take hold.

I seldom if ever make New Year resolutions but last January I made a decision to stop saying the F-word. We’re half way through the year now and the resolution is holding up well. I might say the word occasionally to myself but I never say it to another person or in anyone’s company.

But what has struck me most of all during the year is how different the word now sounds since I have stopped using it. Even when close friends and colleagues say it, there seems to be something wrong about it. I have to say, I just don’t like the sound of it any longer and actually would prefer not to hear it being said.

Does that sound a bit priggish? Maybe it does but so be it.

Is there a link between bad language and vulgar or rude behaviour? I don’t have the answer to that one. Nor for a moment am I saying that people who never use bad language are consequently polite and well behaved.

I’d love to know if the man who offered my pregnant colleague his place in the queue uses bad language. And what about the chap who made no effort to give her his seat?

I’ll never know. But surely there is something about crude and bad language that leads us down a road that looks rough and unpleasant.

Life can be difficult enough without all those profanities.

A lot of prisoners in the US

The United States accounts for five per cent of the world's population but has close to 25 per cent of the world's prison population. There are 2.2 million people in the US in prison.

For every 100,000 US citizens there are 698 behind bars. In Ireland it's 88.

One in every 12 black men between 23 and 54 is in jail, whereas it is one in 60 when it comes to the white population.

The land of the feee and the home of the brave.

It seems President Barack Obama is aware there is something wrong.

St Dominic's 40 years on

Yesterday the parish of St Dominic's in Tallaght marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of the church.

Area bishop Eamonn Walsh was the principal celebrant at the Mass.

In his words after the Gospel he spoke of the church as a spiritual oasis in the area, the importance of discovering our relationship with God and the art of finding out about ourselves.

He wondered how the parish would look in 2055 and emphasised the importance of ownership. Bishop Walsh thanked the people for the spirit that has been developed in the parish.

It was a dignified, simple and prayerful occasion. And it was real. Not a whiff or a thurible-full of liturgical lap dancing.

The church was close to full for the occasion with 15 Dominicans concelebrating. Daragh McNally was deacon.