Ireland’s recent decision to approve same-sex marriage, by popular referendum, has left the country’s Catholic reputation in ruins. Of course, this shift didn’t come about overnight—secularization has been in the works for some time—but the vote reinforces the feeling of a dramatic break with Ireland’s Catholic heritage, and a step into an uncertain future. Continue Reading »
In St. Andrews on Thursday, September 18, I voted in the Scottish referendum and the following morning flew to Ireland to give a lecture in the International Centre for Newman Studies at University College Dublin. The subject was Religion, Science and Philosophy, but it was hardly possible not to begin with a few remarks about the previous day’s “No” to Scottish Independence vote (55.3 percent). Whatever the significance for those in Scotland, and whatever the interest across the world, for many politicians and commentators in Ireland this was a surprise and a disappointment. Continue Reading »
The first word that comes to mind on visiting Belfast in 2008 is change. Continue Reading »
In saying that Marcus Tanner’s Ireland’s Holy Wars is predictable I don’t want to give readers the impression that it is a bad book, because it is not. Its topic is five hundred years of religious strife in Ireland, from 1500 to the present. It is readable, well-researched, and has the . . . . Continue Reading »
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt Scribner, 364 pages, $25 Early last November, high in the Catskills, I attended a celebration of Irish music and dance, the Green Linnet Twentieth Anniversary Festival. Green Linnet is a surprisingly successful record company and organized the event to promote the . . . . Continue Reading »
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