Some listener feedback I received after my first EWTN radio appearance last week:

I was impressed by your dispassionate tone, as well as your easy command of the facts, (killing off the retired abbot notwithstanding). Not sure where the empathy issue came up for whoever. I think you would find it easier in studio rather than on the phone. I would have no hesitation in putting you on the radio at any time if you were not such a right wing nut job! It was a longer interview than I expected but I...

You know the way Christian speakers of a certain ilk like to pretend they had dreadful pasts - like St Augustine - to prove their street cred and how happening they were before they found Jesus.  Well it turns out D'Arcy was a tree-killer.  From The Examiner:

The clergyman recalled what he said was the “greatest sin” of his life, when as a novice he was ordered by a superior to cut down 20 cherry trees because the senior figure did not like them. But the trainee priest was challenged the n...

You will all have heard of the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida.  I don't know the facts of the case; I wasn't there.  But I do know how people try to use these tragic deaths, including President Obama ("If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon").  Certain groups were dismayed to discover the killer wasn't actually white so they began calling him "Hispanic white" - these guys could have taught the South Africans some tricks on race categories.  Then having dug around desp...

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

Lots of people are running around in a confused state after the Daily Telegraph sting operation revealed that it's quite possible for women to have abortions in Great Britain for reasons other...

YOU can help save lives!
 
From February  22nd- April 7 2012, many will be joining together for a faith-filled, groundbreaking, coordinated pro-life mobilization -- 40 Days for Life.
 
40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life effort that consists of:
 
• 40 days of prayer and fasting

• 40 days of peaceful vigil

• 40 days of community outreach
 
in Ireland abortion referral clinics are operating all over the country; these clinic offer false and misleading information to women in crisis pregnanc...

A new pro-life pregnancy support centre is opening near the Marie Stopes Abortion Referral Agency.

Freya Care fund raiser function to help get it started is being held this Saturday, 5th November 2011.  It's at 7.30pm at the Setanta GAA Club, Ballymun Road, Dublin 9.  Featuring live music, food, prizes etc.  €10 admission.

For further information or to make a donation contact Carolyn or Marie at 087-6729393 or 086-6653452

The Daily Telegraph has an interesting but scary story from Vietnam of a young woman whose face aged fifty years almost overnight:

Vietnamese woman Nguyen Thi Phuong now looks like a septugenarian after the rapid aging affliction took hold following an allergic reaction to seafood.

Her sad story began in 2008, when her youthful beauty began to fade over the course of just a few days, leaving her with sagging, wrinkled skin all over her face and body.

Until now she has been forced to wear a...

Below is the full statement from RTE concerning its scandalous defamation of Fr Kevin Reynolds.  Presumably there'll be money involved which the licence payer will provide.  Please repeat the story on your own blogs to ensure maximum coverage.

Apology - Fr Kevin Reynolds

On the evening of the 23rd May 2011, RTÉ broadcast a Prime Time Investigates programme entitled "A Mission to Prey".

Before this broadcast Prime Time conducted an interview with Fr. Kevin Reynolds, the then parish priest at...

Breaking News. 

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has summoned the Irish Ambassador to Israel, Breifne O'Reilly, to explain why a senior member of the Oireachtas, Senator David Norris, had abused his position as a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, to interfere in an Israeli court case. 

"This was a clear attempt to pervert the course of justice, to interfere with the sentencing of a convicted child rapist.  We are shocked and outraged at this attempt by a f...

• I wouldn't touch your ovaries with my rosaries if they were the last ovaries on earth.

• Your body? Too right, no one else would want it.

• It's a womb, not a tomb.

This will be a story worth watching - coverage from the Irish Times:

A priest who claims he was libelled in a recent RTÉ Prime Time Investigates  programme concerning alleged abuse of children and teenagers in Africa by Irish missionaries will apply later this week for a High Court order aimed at having RTÉ speedily provide its defence to his claim.

Fr Kevin Reynolds, a member of the Mill Hill Missionaries and acting parish priest of Ahascragh, Co Galway, says he is prepared to undergo a pa...

My hair was a little darker then.

I met with Blessed Pope John Paul back in 1993.  I had just finished at Maynooth and was unsure what to do.  He said to me "Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

"Grand" says I, "I'm thinking of getting married, what do you think Holy Father?".  He looked at me intently and said "Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds ...

My friend L has a tendency to badger me into putting things on my blog.  So here some information on the upcoming All-Ireland Rally for Life.  Last year it was in Belfast so this year it's in Dublin, Saturday 2nd July at 2pm.

Now here's the thing - if you go to the Rally for Life website here you will find a range of nice things, including pre-Rally Mass times and venues - what you won't find, at least not easily, is a hint as to where the rally actually starts.  Might be an idea to put that o...

Not talking about any funeral in particular but at Catholic funerals in Ireland -

Vestments should be black or violet
(I'm not aware the Irish Bishops Conference has given permission for white)

Eulogies are not allowed, even for celebrities
Statement by the Episcopal Commission for Liturgy and the Irish Commission for Liturgy on celebrating a Catholic Funeral.  (November 2003) "It should be borne in mind that the Funeral Mass is primarily an act of praise of God; it would therefore go again...

I see the Gaeltacht is to be defined out of existence. The Cork Examiner is reporting that the Gaeltacht Bill will stipulate that within defined districts there must be "at least two-thirds of a district’s population be shown by census data to be daily speakers of Irish. The language should be predominant in a community’s social and institutional domains, schools should teach entirely through Irish and religious services, businesses, sports clubs and other local activities should be throu...

Thank you to all my loyal readers who wrote to express their sympathy during my recent bout of carpal tunnerl syndrome.  Actually that's not strictly true - no one wrote.  I've been away, concentrating on a creative writing project, for which, I am rather proud to relate, I this very day, received an award.  Awards, of course, aren't important to writers like myself - it's the second award I've received for my work.  It should be published shortly, perhaps tomorrow.

There have been many storie...

Economic Left/Right: -2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.08

Fresh of the back of the ghastly discovery that I'm in agreement with Patsy Mc Garry and Marie Collins, comes the news that I'm not a crazy right wing reactionary, but a warm, cosy slightly left of centre libertarian - see my political compass above.

It's based on answering a series of questions on issues from economics to abortion, from environment to homosexuality.  Give yourself five minutes and find out if you're a Joe Stalin...