Back Issues / 2006

Despite living in one of the most prosperous eras in Western history, nearly all of us feel a sense of insecurity. Modern communications show us disasters almost as they happen. Famine and violence in other countries or continents are now part of our awareness in a way which would astonish previous generations, who could accept a description of Czechoslovakia as “a faraway country of which we know nothing” as being reasonable.

Bono, lead singer of U2, addressing a recent official Prayer Breakfast at the White House, made a reference to “the damage religion has done to my country”. The remark sounds profound, but is facile, if not meaningless, because religion has made Ireland. Irish civilisation is profoundly Christian, which means that Christian belief has been formative in every aspect of Irish political, economic and social development.

The “Blue Flu” of 1^st May 1998 was the first step in a rapid decline in the public esteem for the Garda Siochana, the police force in the Republic, which was not only one of the few unarmed police forces in the world, but which had the reputation of being available, friendly and incorruptible......

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