Breda O'Brien

3 days ago | irishcatholic.com | Breda O'Brien

A political war of the sexes In the last year or two, there has been a great deal of coverage of a political gender divide opening between younger men and women, with young men drifting more to the right and young women moving firmly to the left. John Burns-Murdoch of the Financial Times was one of the first to note that…

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Breda O'Brien

Recent Hungarian research generated a slew of headlines about people choosing dogs over having children. Some went as far as to blame it for the decline in birth rates. Fortunately, the study is much more nuanced. Prof Enikő Kubinyi from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest suggests that the relationship between rates of pet ownership and having children is complex. Dogs don’t cause lower fertility.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Breda O'Brien

At first glance, there is little comfort for committed Catholics in a recent poll carried out by Amárach Research and commissioned by the Iona Institute, of which I am a patron. Rates of Mass going have plummeted. Only 16 per cent defined themselves as regular Mass goers. At least people are more benign towards Christianity than they are to institutional Catholicism. While only 27 per cent have a favourable attitude to the Catholic Church, half the respondents have a favourable view of Christianity.

2 weeks ago | irishcatholic.com | Breda O'Brien

The 17th-century painting of Archangel Michael defeating Satan by Guido Reni, located in the Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione, Rome, Italy. Photo: iStock As people try to get the measure of Pope Leo XIV, it is natural to look to Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903. Unsurprisingly, the focus has been primarily on Rerum Novarum, his groundbreaking encyclical on the rights of workers, the right to private property, and gospel values as opposed to the…

3 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Breda O'Brien

Bí Cineálta is an anti-bullying initiative for primary and post-primary schools which begins this September. At the launch, former minister for education Norma Foley said bullying can cause significant damage. And yet there seems to be no problem with bullying and bribing teachers into unconditional acceptance of senior cycle reform, including the flawed model of additional assessments worth 40 per cent of marks. Pay deals already agreed will be clawed back if there is noncompliance.