Cardinal Desmond Connell, former Archbishop of Dublin, has died aged 90, it has been announced.

GALWAY-based poet, Rita Ann Higgins, has written a poetry collection (her tenth) that never bores. 

What if Pearse and Connolly had survived? Perhaps the first item on the agenda would have been a split, writes Gerard Howlin

ORDINATIONS to the Catholic priesthood are at such an historic low that it seems a struggle to keep a priest in every parish. Some parishes share a priest, while others are served by men who might have retired decades ago had the opportunity presented itself.

The decline of Protestants in the South was no accident before and after 1916.

Clerical sex abuse survivor and papal representative Marie Collins said she was glad there would be an inquiry over the failure by the gardaí to act on information it had in 1973, about paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

For generations the Irish Examiner has recorded the major events in the life of our nation, tracking its triumphs and disasters since the newspaper was first launched in 1841.

PEOPLE of a certain age will remember, though many have deliberately forgotten, how strident some Catholic churchmen were in the pronouncements they made about issues that had little or nothing to do with religious life or faith.

I am an Irish Research Council-funded PhD student in NUI Galway, in my secnd year. My PhD topic is ‘Irish Catholic Anti-Communism in the era of John Charles McQuaid, 1940-1971’.

I had assumed that former Taoiseach, John A Costello, a devout Catholic, had written the Uriah Heep-type letter of cloying humility and obsequiousness to Pope Pius XII.

Cork sculptor Séamus Murphy is the subject of a new film, writes Colette Sheridan.

Collected Stories

Irish children may have been illegally adopted from mother and baby homes by US and British couples after signatures from their birth mothers were "blatantly forged" by unknown officials.

The revelations of the mass grave of babies in Tuam is horrifying and the Taoiseach must launch a full-scale national inquiry, writes Susan Lohan

On the 80th anniversary of a fateful decision for women in sport, Ryle Dwyer looks at an unholy row that harmed Irish sport

On the 40th anniversary of the deletion of the ‘special position’ of the Catholic Church from the Constitution, Ryle Dwyer examines the article’s origins

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

WHAT was striking about the marches in Ireland last weekend following the death of Savita Halappanavar was how so many of those attending had never been on a political march of any sort before.

As strong as the Catholic Church may have seemed, one of the reasons for the Pope’s 1979 visit was worry over its decline, writes Diarmaid Ferriter

Fifty years on from Vatican II, Catholics are still split on what it actually achieved. Desmond Fisher wonders what next for a Church in crisis

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

The IFI celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend. Padraic Killeen talks to director Ross Keane

Some of the data published in the first extracts from our most recent census shows that over 80% of Irish people describe themselves as Catholic.

A new book exposes how, after a promising start, corruption became endemic in Irish political life, writes Colette Browne

IN 2005, a man wrote a letter to the Kansas State School Board. The Kansas Board were considering whether to allow the teaching of ‘Intelligent Design’ (the idea that the Universe has a ‘designer’ i.e. God) alongside the teaching of evolution.

Enda Kenny should have reminded the Chinese vice-president that it was Frank Aiken, acting on the advice of Conor Cruise O’Brien, who stubbornly insisted that all of the small nations in the UN should be free to discuss China’s representation in the General Assembly.

SUPPORTING the family is a trait that always sat easily with the Irish.

VICTIMS’ organisation One in Four has called for a statutory inquiry into Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid, as it emerged that gardaí are investigating two complaints of abuse against him.

The Government today faced calls for an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving the former Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid.

50 years ago, gardaí protested against an unfair pay deal in an action that resonates to this day, writes Austin Kenny

Frank Duff: A Life Story

MANY of the core beliefs we once used as foundations of society have been shaken if not sundered.

IT WAS after 10pm on April 11, 1951 when Taoiseach John A Costello made the shock announcement that Health Minister Noel Browne had resigned and President Seán T O’Kelly had accepted the resignation on the recommendation of the Taoiseach.

SIXTY years ago this month, the Angelus was first broadcast on Radio Éireann at the request of then Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid.

RITA CHILDERS, the wife of former president Erskine Childers, who herself came close to being Ireland’s first female president, has died peacefully at the age of 95.

WE are really in the midst of a revolution of sorts. All of the old certainties are being washed away. People are now questioning all the previously authoritative figures in society.

THERE was an amazing interview during the week on RTÉ in relation to the final decommissioning of weapons by the UDA. It seemed strange to hear Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group speak in such complimentary terms about the help received in Dublin.

THE Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty is one of 17 senior bishops who served in the Archdiocese of Dublin during the period investigated by the Murphy Commission.