Those few women left around the cross were the followers who were so marginalised, it was debatable whether their culture saw them as human. The story spread across the known world so rapidly because it won the favour of slaves and women.

In the middle of the largest public health crisis in living memory, it is a curious situation to find a Minister for Health closing a vaccination centre. But there was little if any protest when Stephen Donnelly suspended operations at the Beacon Hospital in south Dublin last week.

Into the hole they poured all their surplus money and when the money filled the hole, a door slid open at the bottom and the money drained out. The people cheered when this happened because this proved they were the most efficient and productive and hardworking people. This truly was the best little country in the world to dig a hole.

Keith Adams considers, from a sociological and theological perspective, what it means for the terminally-ill to die in prison.

  Last weekend, in the middle of a worsening pandemic, a crowd of almost a thousand people marched through the streets of Dublin, protesting at what they saw as illegitimate restrictions on their freedoms. Most of us agree that these “restrictions” are in fact sensible public health procedures and fail to understand how being asked… Read more »

  Last weekend, Irish social media lit up with the sharing of a shocking video. By habit and disposition, I try to avoid clicking on these links. My world is distressing enough as it is at the moment and it is easier to process things when presented in black and white in text. Full colour… Read more »

  The EU Commission ruled in 2016 that Ireland had illegally offered State aid to Apple in their tax arrangements. Like so many of the multi-national corporations based in Ireland, Apple were never heavily taxed here – paying about 1% of their profits in 2003. But by 2014, that rate had reduced to 0.005%. The… Read more »

  Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party yesterday published their proposed Programme for Government. 128 days after the General Election, this is the first concrete step towards the formation of a new government. The document – 126 pages long – will now be examined by the members of these political parties and by… Read more »

  It is less than two weeks since the Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was caught on camera killing George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man. Floyd, who was a father of three, an accomplished sportsman, and a devout Christian had been suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 note. Protests in the city of Minneapolis… Read more »

  While our thoughts naturally turn to the Spanish Flu pandemic when trying to make sense of Covidtide, remembering the much more recent AIDS epidemic is also essential. More than a generation ago, the Irish moral theologian, Enda McDonagh, wrote an essay about the theological implications of the AIDS epidemic that still resonates today.