When Pope Francis visited Ireland in August last year, the crowds expected by official Ireland, secular or clerical, did not materialise.

So, I put a link to a short story up for my students the other day. The story was by Michael Morpurgo and I was delighted to find an online copy. It can be challenging when you are relying on non-paper texts to teach.

Until recently, we equated values with religion, but have swapped all that for public opinion, writes Gerard Howlin.

A former top Vatican official has accused Pope Francis of having known of allegations of sex abuse by a prominent US cardinal for five years before accepting his resignation last month and he called on the pontiff to resign.

Things are far from perfect in Ireland when it comes to issues of child protection, but we have made a lot of strides in the right direction, writes Daniel McConnell.

Hands up who will take enthusiastic part in Pancake Tuesday today but be less inclined to eat fish tomorrow?

Was it by chance or by design that the apologies to Joanne Hayes came just as the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment began in earnest,? asks Victoria White.

Decorating a Christmas tree for the first time? From history and family traditions to interior trends and home-made baubles, Caomhan Keane has all you need to know

Fine Gael concerns that the abortion referendum could ultimately tear the Government apart have been underlined after a party TD accused one of her colleagues of “lies” and producing “fake” facts on the issue.

The London School of Economics this week published a cheerful report under the title Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? An Update.

A result where holy Catholic Ireland has elected a gay prime minister would make international news, writes Alison O’Connor.

Páraic Kerrigan, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University, suggests the recent Maynooth 'scandal' implies that some have not kept pace with changing attitudes to sexuality in wider Irish society.

As ye all know by now I deal with unusual truths not normally even mentioned briefly elsewhere.

 

When Eleanor Burke eventually asked her grandmother why she never spoke about her membership of Cumann na mBan in Kerry, Ellie Rice replied: “We learned not to speak or say anything because one idle word during that period could cause somebody’s death.”

Writing through tears of joy and pain, Donnachadh McCarthy, who came out in his late teens in 1979, is still relishing the result of last week’s marriage equality referendum

Lisa McInerney is the hottest new writer around and has based her debut crime novel in Cork City. Tanya Sweeney spoke to her about the new book, college in Cork, and her life in Galway.    

If apologists for 1916 and Fenian terrorism can remove the scales from their eyes, they will perceive Westminster had wanted to remove itself from any form of direct rule in Ireland from as early as 1913 if not earlier.

Some 20 years after predictions were made of a ‘Catholic restoration’, the Church finds itself lost in modern Ireland, writes TP O’Mahony

Pádraig Pearse’s pioneering morse code announcement, Twink in lingerie on the Late Late and Miley getting it on with Fidelma in Glenroe feature in Dave Kenny’s magic moments of Irish broadcasting.

On this day, 100 years ago, 4,000 workers marched through Dublin, demanding recognition by employers for the ITGWU and the reinstatement of striking employees.

A woman illegally adopted almost 60 years ago has accused the Government of not going far enough to help her and thousands of others.

The latest pronouncement on funerals demonstrates a Church hierarchy that seems to be turning inwards, away from aspects of Irish culture that many hold dear, writes Claire O’Sullivan

The Fields

LETTER-writing is in danger of obsolescence and ‘hard copy’ communication is dwindling rapidly.

A new Constitution should embody our society’s values and equality in particular, and women have most to gain, writes Orla O’Connor

AFTER long debate but little action, this academic year parents will be given a choice to change the patron, and by extension the culture, of their child’s school.

Soap matriarch Biddy White Lennon has revealed how she believes television farming dramas, The Riordans and Glenroe, played a role in educating Catholic Ireland on contraception and divorce.

George Mackay Brown: The Wound and the Gift

NOBODY seems to have asked what Brian Cowen was doing in Vietnam around St Patrick’s Day 2008.

You can’t deny the state — British or Irish — the exclusive right to use legitimate force and, at the same time, hold it to a higher standard than paramilitaries.

IRELAND and Europe lost a world-class writer yesterday with the death of novelist John McGahern.

THE political correctness controversy surrounding the recent remarks of Mary O’Rourke reached ludicrous proportions. The only thing racist in relation to her comments was the criticism.

THE Taoiseach could only express disappointment at the appalling figures of clerical child abuse within the Catholic Church in the Republic, as revealed in the Ferns report.

DESPITE spiralling teenage pregnancy rates and growing rates of sexually transmitted infections, young Irish people appear more eager than ever to remain celibate until marriage.