Last week when the DUP’S Iris Robinson retired, I blogged about her battle for the ‘moral soul’ of Northern Ireland. I was as surprised as anyone at the news yesterday evening about her extramarital affair, and her attempt last March to take her own life due to her anguish about what had happened. The news [...]
Archive | January, 2010
Peter Robinson, Gerry Adams and Questions about Political Leadership
A column by David Gordon in today’s Belfast Telegraph addresses speculation about the leadership of DUP First Minister Peter Robinson, noting the persistent rumours that he too will bow out of politics following his wife Iris Robinson’s retirement due to depression. Yesterday in the same paper, Gordon made the case that Mr. Robinson wouldn’t be [...]
Parish Priests Reflect on the Decline of the Irish Catholic Church
Today’s Irish Times features interviews by Rosita Boland with three priests at various stages of their careers, responding to what is beginning to look more and more like the collapse of the Irish Catholic Church. All three condemn the recent revelations of child abuse and cover-up. Two of them share their view that the Irish [...]
Archbishop Eames & Peter Robinson’s Silence about Cardinal Daly: Questions about the Politics of Symbols, Gestures & New Discourses
Yesterday, DUP leader Peter Robinson finally commented on the death of Catholic Cardinal Cahal Daly. Robinson’s silence had become deafening, and pundits had begun to debate whether he was demonstrating the leadership skills of a First Minister for all of Northern Ireland. Speaking yesterday on the BBC Radio programme Sunday Sequence, Lord Robin Eames, the [...]
Atheist Ireland Group Challenges Ireland’s New Blasphemy Law
Within 15 minutes of a post about the website http://blasphemy.ie/ on the Irish Times website’s breaking news section, visitors (like myself!) received the message: ‘The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.’ I saw the blasphemy site late last night, tipped off by [...]
Thoughts on the Death of Cardinal Cahal Daly – Peace, Ecumenism, & the Future of Irish Christianity
The former Catholic primate of Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, died yesterday at the age of 92. On the eve of what promises to be yet another difficult year for the Irish Catholic Church, Cardinal Daly’s death seems to have created a brief pause during which politicians, church leaders, and others have taken to evaluating his [...]
About me
Welcome to Building a Church Without Walls, a website for people who are excited about how Christianity is developing in the 21st Century. I am a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Studies Programme at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics).
Please note this is my personal site. All views are my own and are not representative of TCD.
