Spring 2013 marks two significant anniversaries for Alexander Pope, perhaps the most representative and alien English poet of the 18th Century.
If I hear something racist, sometimes when I pull the person up for it they'll say something like; "Ease up champ. Settle down sport. Back off tiger. It's only a little bit racist." Is that even possible? To be only a little bit racist?
A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis has said some paedophiles were not criminally responsible for their actions as the condition is...
I, for one, am quite excited about the new Pope. It is easy to raise questions about his age - he is only 10 years younger than Ratzinger - but there are signs that there is something to like for everyone. For one, he marks the end of a long period of European dominance: it is sometimes hard to remember that half of the early Popes were from the Middle East and Africa.
A woman claiming to be the former heart throb of the new pope says he became a priest when she spurned his advances. Amalia Damote said Jorge Bergo...
On Sunday, 29 March 1739, two young men, aspiring authors and student friends from Eton College and Cambridge, departed Dover for the Continent.
The Pope is bidding his final farewells to cardinals, Vatican staff and the Catholic world, as he prepares for his retirement on Thursday night. On...
Shadow Dancer, though actually filmed in part in Dublin, also brings back the voices, streets and colours of Belfast, which I remember so fondly.
Anyone who has ever run anything - national or local, commercial or non-profit, big or small - has had to think about leadership. In my own dabbling in the subject, I've come to believe that there are two crucial, and frequently overlooked characteristics of leadership: service and humility.
It wasn't a link to favourite gif, or a request for a member of One Direction to "follow back", but the pope's first tweet was simple message of goodw...
Pope Benedict XVI is to christen his new Twitter account with 140 holy characters this week. The first tweet, planned for midday on Wednesday, wil...
I've got a blind spot where the word 'queer' is concerned, unless I'm paying someone £50 to whisper it into my ear. When my sexuality is used as a weapon, the comedy club becomes a schoolyard and I'm 14 again, tall and skinny and femmy and mouthy, a huge ego and a low self esteem.
A former popemobile could ride out its retirement as a party venue for hen nights, stag dos and corporate meetings in a new business idea. The hist...
A woman has died in an Irish hospital after she was refused an abortion. Savita Halappanavar, a dentist aged 31, was 17 weeks pregnant when she die...
The Vatican has given its holy blessing to that most famous of womanising, gun-toting, spirit-swilling, government trained-killers, James Bond. The...
Northern Ireland is known for its history of religious and state conflict; a recent scar that most of us living here would wish healed. So strange then that the group most disregarded during the Troubles, yet vital to its peace process, i.e. women, should be the subject of unity between the extremes of both Catholic and Protestant religious voices this week
You might also have thought that after fifty years, the Catholic Church would have reached a fixed mind as to the significance of the Council. Not so either. Its consequences are contested, its nature, continuity or break with the past disputed, and all subject to opposing interpretations. Zhou Enlai's assessment of the French Revolution applies: "too early to tell".
The National Secular Society has branded school transport a “a hotbed of separatism and religious discrimination” after Catholic and non-Catholic ...
Hundreds of anti-riot police will be on in north Belfast amid fears of street disorder after a big Orange Order demonstration in the city. Politici...
World leaders will today discuss how they can tackle one of the biggest killers of teenage girls worldwide: pregnancy. According to the Department...
One of the Church of England's most prominent female clerics has urged delays to legislation introducing women bishops after last minute amendments to...
Pope Benedict has hired a reporter from Fox News as its head of communications amid the Catholic institution's 'Vatileaks' scandal. The 52-year-old...
A pro-life campaign rolled out in Dublin promoting the idea that abortion "tears lives apart" has attracted strong criticism for increasing the shame ...
The Olympic Torch has crossed the Irish border on an historic visit to the Republic on Wednesday in a symbol of the peace process. Irish Olympic bo...
Paedophile priest Alexander Bede Walsh who used his "revered" status to prey on young boys for nearly two decades was jailed on Friday. Walsh, 58, ...
