Colm Fahy was part of the Jesuits for Climate Justice campaign at COP 30 in Brazil. He was impressed by the ethos and commitment of the Irish delegation he met there.

With the rise of Far-Right violence, the question of social integration has become a key conversation. But if you want to see integration in action, the first place to go is not a political press conference or a strategic document. Go for a walk on a Sunday morning through Dublin’s north-east inner-city instead. You might hear Yoruba hymns floating out of a converted office block, incense drifting from a Romanian Orthodox service, and gospel choruses in Mandarin echoing from among a row of residential buildings. Step inside any of these communities and you will find the real architecture of integration – ordinary Dubliners mixing with those newly arrived to our shores, building community quietly and transformatively.

Introduction New research by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and ACET Ireland has identified almost fifty faith-based communities in the north-east inner-city of Dublin. A key aim of the research was to analyse the role of faith-based communities in fostering the integration of migrants, refugees, and immigrants in the north-east inner-city, and how… Read more »

Last January, the Irish Times published an opinion piece by myself and Imam Samsudeen MecSheain: ‘Freedom of religion an empty formula unless places to worship available.’ It drew attention to a new and unfamiliar reality. People who have recently moved to Ireland do something, which we historically did when we were an emigrant people. They… Read more »

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice is delighted to announce the appointment of Fr Niall Leahy SJ as its new Director. The appointment marks a further investment by the Irish Jesuits in the mission and work of JCFJ. Speaking on behalf of the Board of Management, the Chairperson, Dr Pat Nolan, has given Fr… Read more »

All our prisons are doing is “warehousing” drug users and releasing them again, thereby ensuring that many will return to using drugs and back into prison. 

In 2023, there were 184 deaths on Irish roads. This tragic loss of life included 44 pedestrians, eight cyclists, and three e-scooter users. This year, the figure is likely to exceed 200 people. Public concern is evidenced by the regular media attention to the increase or decrease in the number of road traffic deaths, and… Read more »

This article, by Fr Peter McVerry SJ, originally appeared Reality magazine in 2016. Eight years on and it is as relevant as it ever was. This week Ireland was told to shore up corporate tax laws to prevent wealthy from committing tax fraud and evasion. At the same time, we are rapidly expanding our prison… Read more »

Maybe the reason the Kenny Report is sitting on a shelf gathering dust is that governments do not want to reduce the cost of housing.  Their core voters are home owners who will be horrified at the thought that the value of their house would be reduced, even minimally. But unless they are planning to sell the house, that is a purely paper reduction.

If a climate of fear dominates most public discussion of drug policy, it is often associated with, or justified, by a climate of moral disapproval – drugs are bad, therefore we must eliminate them, we cannot be seen to tolerate them in any way. The war on drugs must continue and any dissenting voices must be suppressed.  

Most prisoners come into prison with an addiction issue, receive little or no help with their addiction, and leave prison with the same addiction issue. And we are surprised when they reoffend!

Our research had shown us, time and time again, that homelessness is not an inevitability, not some unintended by-product of the normal functioning of an economically developed society that had to be accepted as a part of life. The well intentioned, but essentially incorrect, statement that ‘homelessness can happen to anyone’ is not backed by the evidence.

During Covid-19, the eviction ban was considered to be constitutional because we had a health emergency. It could now be re-instated on the grounds that we have a housing emergency.  

It was a demoralising, destructive and dehumanising experience, with no redeeming features, characterised by idleness and boredom. Some politicians and tabloid media believed the regime was not sufficiently harsh to deter them from committing further crime on release. One young person there summed it up very succinctly when he said: “This place brings out the worst in you.” 

‘We are first of all, not doers of the common good, but receivers of the common good. And then co-creators and participants within an active process in history. We are witnesses to that good. And in a suffering world, we are those called to lament, to rage and to struggle for the victory of that life.’

The lecture takes place on Thursday March 24th at 7pm at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. It is a free event but registration is necessary.

Peter McVerry SJ was on the Whitaker Committee in 1984 which reported to government the following year that communities are made safer not when we imprison more people for longer, but when those we imprison are released as better people, with more skills, more opportunities open to them and more hope that their future can be different from their past.

For anyone who missed our ‘Cop On’ webinar with speakers Sean McDonagh and Jerry Mac Evilly about the COP26 climate summit, you can now watch a recording of the event.

The recommendations in the Kenny Report from 1973 could have prevented, or at least mitigated our current housing and homelessness crisis. So why were those recommendations ignored? asks Peter McVerry.

Harsh Mander, a prominent activist, described Swamy as “devoted to selfless defence of Adivasi [indigenous] rights, gentle, brave. Even from prison he grieved not for himself but injustice to poor prisoners.”

“The only thing I request is to consider interim bail. I have been in deteriorating condition. I would rather be in Ranchi with my friends. Whatever happens to me, I would like to be with my own. I do not think any of that [hospitalisation] is going to help.”

What would a Just Transition mean for Ireland?

This workshop, which is the last in the Stop Climate Chaos Climate Action Plan Consultation Workshop Series takes an in-depth look at Just Transition, to help to inform your submission to the Government’s Climate Action Plan Consultation.

Social theologian and Director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice Kevin Hargaden told Ruadhán Jones of The Irish Catholic that the “homelessness catastrophe, which has plateaued largely because of the eviction ban,will now almost certainly jump – unless there’s a mass intervention on rent arrears”.

Today, April 26th is Stan Swamy’s 84th birthday. Help us to raise awareness of his unjust detention in an Indian jail. #StandWithStan

To address the problem of homelessness, we obviously need to understand the causes and nature of it.  Unfortunately, there are some myths about homelessness, even amongst decision-makers, which prevents the problem from being resolved, says Peter McVerry SJ.