In ecological experimentation, one of the ways to examine how systems work is to disturb the system, by, for example, adding, removing, or changing the behaviour of a particular species and looking at how the system responds. These experiments are used to see how resilient or vulnerable a system is. The fuel protests last week… Read more »

Earlier this month, one of Ireland’s major carrot producers, Hughes Farming, went into administration.

Spoiler alert! Hot Fuzz The 2007 film Hot Fuzz is set in a town which regularly wins the tidy towns competition; there is no graffiti, living statues or underage drinkers. A secret cabal, sinister hooded tidy-town zealous residents, decides what action needs to be taken – usually involving murder – ‘for the greater good’. This… Read more »

In Manchán Magans’ book “99 words for rain (and only one for sun)” he effortlessly evoked the prevailing weather system in Ireland. Rain is one of Irelands defining features and it is responsible for our description as the Emerald Isle. All this to say that we are used to rain in Ireland – but not… Read more »

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.

The “veto culture” is often motivated by the desire to seek an easy payout. There is something fundamentally tawdry about this and we should not be ashamed to comment on it. An attitude prevails that if you can extract a little compensation bundle from the government, you would be a fool not to take it.

The turning of the year prompts us to look back and look forward. In JCFJ in 2025 we were delighted to deliver a special issue of Working Notes dedicated to marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ groundbreaking Laudato Si’ and to follow that up with an issue focusing on the ethical and policy dimensions… Read more »

COP30 came to a close two weeks ago, and as usual, there are mixed feelings on whether or not it  serves the purpose it intends to. This year, we had the privilege of hearing about COP from the ground from Filipe Martin SJ (JESC), as well as receiving daily updates from our research fellow, Colm… Read more »

There are many ways of making the connection between environmentalism and Jesus. An important one, I believe, is his humility.

Naming the Assumptions Let us start by stating two common assumptions: The first position used to be extended often by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and their ilk. I have heard it myself: that religion is a sort of psychological crutch for people who can’t quite cope. While it seems like it might have some… Read more »

Once upon a time, long ago, I found myself sitting in a hotel bar having coffee with a prominent writer who self consciously presents themselves as a defender of the best of conservative political theory. The conversation flowed pretty naturally. I love to talk about ideas, especially with people who come at things differently from… Read more »

In October 2022, two young people from the environmental activist group, Just Stop Oil, walked into the National Gallery in London carrying tins of soup. They opened one tin and hurled it over the glass protecting Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting Sunflowers. The painting itself was unharmed. The seventeenth-century Italian frame was splashed. It needed some… Read more »

If you do a search for the word ‘local’ in Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ letter on the care of our common home, you will discover that the document is peppered with references to all sorts of local concerns, actors and solutions.

In April 1815, the Mount Tambora volcano in Indonesia erupted with a force unmatched in recorded history. A massive plume of ash and gas reached the stratosphere, darkening the skies. The year before, a lesser eruption in the Philippines had already primed the atmosphere. Together, they ejected extraordinary quantities of debris into the environment. The… Read more »

My last post focused on localism as practiced by small farmers, but localism is as much an urban phenomenon as a rural one.

A rallying cry heard throughout the 20th century was “Bread, not bombs.” The original phrase captured the moral demand to prioritise human need over militarism, often in Cold War and anti-poverty contexts. But in the face of climate collapse, biodiversity breakdown, ecological injustice, and environmental racism, a reframing is badly needed. The drums of war… Read more »

It’s been almost six months since I’ve been welcomed onto the JCFJ team, so I thought I would report on some of the highlights in what has been an intense time of learning, reflection, challenge, and connection.   As well as helping the team with environment-related submissions, assisting with our publication Working Notes, and promoting my… Read more »

As we accelerate towards climate chaos, more and more people are looking to ramp off the globalist superhighway and make their way through life more slowly and simply on winding localist trails.

On Wednesday evening I took part in a Hedgerows Cycle in Dublin 12 to mark National Biodiversity Week 2025. Funded by the Irish Environmental Network and co-organised by Dublin Cycling Campaign and Hedgerows Ireland, the event aimed to celebrate the biodiversity benefits of hedgerows, showcase some of the area’s hedgerows, and explore how hedges can… Read more »

If a more populist right Government, than the incumbent coalition, were to emerge in Ireland, then they have an arsenal of tools to further suppress peaceful democratic protest and respond punitively to protestors.

A Presbyterian Appreciation of Pope Francis Sometimes people ask me how I ended up directing a Jesuit social research centre, as a Presbyterian theologian. At this stage, the polite answer rolls out of my mouth with barely any thinking required.  But if I was to tell the truth, I would have to say that it… Read more »

What we are witnessing is a form of societal resignation. We tolerate a level of road danger that curtails the freedom of children to move through their communities. This is a moral issue. When we fail to police motor offences, when we design streets around the convenience of cars rather than the safety of people, we make a clear choice: to prioritise speed and flow over life and freedom.

Forced to take an indirect route to work or a night out because of “no-go” streets. Hurriedly crossing the road due to serial law-breaking and aggressive behaviour. Speeding up on your bicycle as a “single male” aggressively follows. Children unable to go to school on their own—even the shortest distance—without needing to be delivered to the school gate in the parental car.

We’ve written on this blog before about the environmental impact of the fashion industry and how it increases inequality, and the issue of garment worker exploitation has been explored in our journal Working Notes. Visit any shopping centre or high street and you’ll see bustling stores and people carrying multiple shopping bags from clothing retailers,… Read more »

The JCFJ is a member of Coalition 2030, an alliance of over 70 civil society and trade union organisations in Ireland who collaborate for the domestic and global achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs, which are all equally important and should be treated equally, were adopted by all UN member… Read more »