Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry

Contributor

Patsy McGarry is a contributor to The Irish Times having spent over 25 years as the paper's Religious Affairs Correspondent. He previously reported for Magill magazine, the Irish Press, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent. He is the author of First Citizen: Mary McAleese and the Irish Presidency.

James Joyce: ‘For a boy of his age in a Dublin day school, he seems to have had considerable sexual experience’

In a Word ... Precocious

PSNI given emergency Stormont cash to tackle anti-immigration riots

All parties in executive ‘on the same page’ in condemning ‘violent racism’, Michelle O’Neill said

Highest number of abuse allegations in 16 years received by Catholic Church’s safeguarding body

Board reports 50 per cent rise in number of claims lodged this year in wake of scoping inquiry into religious schools

In a Word...Perfection

So much effort, such little return

‘It is our Christmas’: Eid celebrations in Tallaght a mix of faith and fun

About 4,000 people turned up for event marking the end of Ramadan fasting

In a Word...Ancestry

Ireland has proved adept at forging friendships with influential people based on family heritage

‘Humanity has lost its heart’: Ireland’s churches react forcefully to `abandoned’ Gaza

Catholic bishops pray ‘all those in positions of power globally will stand up and demand an end to this cruelty’

In a Word...Language

Language is intrinsically linked to identity and is sometimes weaponised in political discourse

Church live-streaming likely to lead to more defamation actions, evangelicals warn

Evangelical church in Tullamore, Co Offaly, was recently sued over remarks made during live-streamed Baptism

In a Word ... Scatology

Advertising and bodily functions – a match made in hell

The financial heavyweight, the media guru and the abuse investigator: What next for top Irish Vatican clerics under Pope Leo XIV?

Three Irish-born senior figures in the Roman Curia look set to remain in prominent roles under the new pontiff

Zelenskiy invites Pope Leo to visit Ukraine

Invitation extended during pontiff’s first known phone call with a foreign leader

In a Word... Suffragette

Is there a man out there who would dare sing – even in jest – that song from My Fair Lady: ‘Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?’

‘Never again war’: Pope Leo interrupts St Peter’s Square revelry with pleas for peace in Ukraine and Gaza

Visitors praise ‘humble, simple and very welcoming man’

‘Bob the Pope’ considered ‘a safe pair of hands’ by Irish priest who knew the new Pope Leo XIV

Pontiff’s successor as head of Augustinians recalls a man who is ‘humble, listens, lets everybody do their jobs’