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Human Suffering and Human Dignity
Gerry O’Hanlon SJ
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The immediate trigger for these reflections is the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020. This Private Members’ Bill intends to give patients with a progressive and incurable terminal illness a choice to avail of ‘assisted dying’. Its chief sponsor, Gino Kenny TD, has acknowledged that this is ‘a profoundly difficult subject, no matter what side you’re on’ and called for ‘a respectful, rational and meaningful debate’.
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Ignatius of Loyola: Apostle to the Muslims
Damian Howard SJ
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Ignatius of Loyola: Apostle to the Muslims
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Illuminating Dark Times- The Surprising Relevance of Catholic Social Teaching
Anna Rowlands
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In 1968 the social philosopher and sometime critic of Christianity Hannah Arendt published a book in homage to Bertolt Brecht’s poem, ‘To Posterity’, which begins with the following stanza:
Indeed I live in the dark times!
A guileless word is an absurdity. A smooth forehead betokens
A hard heart. He who laughs
Has not yet heard
The terrible tidings. -
Imagining Kells: A Poetic Meditation on the Book of Kells
James Harpur
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In 2018 I published a book of poems, The White Silhouette, that mainly focused on Christian spirituality and mysticism. At its centre was a four-part meditative poem inspired by the Book of Kells that took me nineteen years, on and off, to complete. In this essay I hope to describe my fascination with the Book of Kells and some of the themes and questions that emerged in my poem, such as: ‘Can sacred art effect a fundamental change of consciousness in the beholder?’ ‘How much does it help to be a believer to appreciate the Book of Kells?’ ‘What is the function of the Book of Kells in the twenty-first century?
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Industrial Policy in Ireland: Responding to COVID-19
William Kingston
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It is clearly inevitable that the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, the events which have so dominated in 2020, will transform Irish economic conditions in a fundamental way.
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Ireland’s Election 2020: The Shape of Things to Come?
Anthony White
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There were a number of unique factors about the Irish general election of February 2020, which in time may cause it to be seen as one of the most significant in the history of the state.
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Irish Catholics in Early Twentieth Century Ireland: The Case of the Macardle Brothers
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Desmond Gibney
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Irish, ‘Celtic’, and the Future
Alan Titley
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When I was asked to imagine Ireland, and the place that the Irish language, literature, and culture might have in it in 2030, I had to swallow hard. It is difficult enough to examine a past that is always changing, almost impossible to assess a present that is in constant flux: so what chance is there to imagine a future that will never be what we think?
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Is There a Future for Christian Religious Education in Irish Post-primary Schools?
Amalee Meehan
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The Irish state is committed to ensure that all children, in accordance with their abilities should have ‘formative experiences in moral, religious and spiritual education’, while maintaining due regard for the rights of the child and their parents to freedom of religion.
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John Henry Newman and the Idea of a University
David Begg
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In an address to the Pontifical Irish College in Rome on 11 October 2019 to mark the canonisation of John Henry Newman, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin observed: ‘The development of university education in Ireland has lost this dream of Newman. The main universities proclaim themselves to be, by definition, exclusively secular and thus they shun any real place for religion in their culture’.
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John Hume’s Legacy
Michael Lillis
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It would be difficult to argue against the proposition that John Hume has been the most important and influential political leader in Ireland over the past forty years.
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John Redmond and the First World War
Ronan McGreevy
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Ronan McGreevy writes about John Redmond, whose commitment to Irish participation in the First World War destroyed him and his party.