Shelter in the Storm
As I sit down to write this column, news is coming in of tragedy in the Donegal International Rally. It’s utterly heart-breaking—a sunny summer’s day of laughter and excitement closes wrapped in the dark clouds of numbness and grief. Storms come uninvited and unexpected into our lives—three Sundays ago, as I came out of church,…
What makes a life valuable?
As I held my young son in my arms the consultant from a London hospital told me that they recommend abortion for his condition. Was the consultant really saying that my son’s life was not worth living? How do we determine the value of someone’s life? The Ridgeway family sent shockwaves around the world as…
“Little Liars?” (guest post from our placement student Gareth)
“Did you take that toy from your brother?”… “No” “Do you have a dirty nappy?”… “No” As a parent of four young children, I have quickly discovered that children don’t need to be taught how to lie. Apparently, deception begins even before they learn to talk! According to a study by researchers at the University…
Making Friends on the Water
“People should make friends on the water,” said my 12 year old son during last week’s heatwave. I asked him why and he said “because no one can see your disability on the water and they treat you as they would treat you normally.” Wow! What perception. My son suffers with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which…
How Little we Know (guest post from Gareth Orr)
It’s that time of year again. The leaves have returned to the trees, the flowers are blooming, the grass is growing (albeit slowly). All this can only mean one thing. Exam season is upon us once again! Even if you are not currently revising for exams yourself, no doubt you know someone who is. Across…
Can anything good come out of Down?
Can anything good come out of Down?! That’s what we might be wondering after they knocked Donegal out of the championship. But there was good news from another recent sporting event as Aaron Beggs from Bangor sacrificed a personal best to help a fellow runner in the Boston Marathon. Ajay Haridasse was less than 200m…
The Watershed
Sometimes on holidays we find ourselves in interesting places by accident. Last year we were in Austria and took a bit of a detour just to avoid a tunnel—not much scenery to be seen in a 13km tunnel! At the summit of a mountain pass we noticed, off to the side of the road, a…
Counted
On Saturday 18th April the National Archives made freely available over 700,000 individual household returns from the 1926 Census of Population—the first census conducted after the foundation of the Irish Free State. Within hours, four million hits had flooded the site. Across Ireland and the diaspora, people leaned into their screens, searching for grandparents, great-grandparents,…
The Moon is always round
There were “audible screams of delight” from NASA scientists onboard Artemis 2. One of the Astronauts, Victor Glover, had this to say: “As we are so far from Earth and look back at… the beauty of creation… In all of this emptiness — this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this…
It’s Friday—But Sunday’s Comin’
Easter is just past. An annual reminder that evil does not have the last word—even when it looks to have had it. Jesus Christ rose from the grave, conquering death and having paid the price for sin. But it is not simply a past event. It is a picture of now and a promise for…
No GAA In heaven?
“Imagine there’s no GAA in heaven? I’d have to come back down again!” Was Marty Morrissey joking when he said those words in a recent interview with the Irish Independent? He probably was, but I’m pretty sure he was serious when he said: “Butterflies appeared in the church during the funeral when my mum died,…
The Plague of Clocks
Last summer I read an excellent book called Margin, about creating margin in our lives so that we aren’t running ourselves into the ground. Space to rest, to wind down, to think, space for the unexpected. We have become fixated on time. Everything has to be fast—we time things to the second. We move from…
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Milford RPC 