SOURCES ON THE IRISH CHURCH

There are a number of Irish Catholic periodicals that find their way to our house. The regular, weekly Irish Catholic is about as official as one can get being part-funded but not owned by the Irish Hierarchy. Also in the ring is the free monthly Alive! is run by an Irish Dominican, the self-described "Barely Managing Editor" Fr Brian McKevitt OP . The Irish Family is also doing the rounds but I can't find a website. Alive gets a lot of flak notably from politicians who ascribe to it a lot of influence in the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty. It's been mentioned in the Dail (our Parliament). Must be a prophetic voice then. Can't say I agree with everything in it but at least its an alternative. The Irish Catholic had become bland until the alternative papers came along and stirred things up. Then David Quinn took on the post and really made it into a worthwhile read. He now works with the Iona Institute. The paper is now edited by Gary O'Sullivan who was a student with me in the Irish Capuchin Province for a while. Gary is a bit more liberal than David (seems to favour women priests for instance) but at least the paper has kept its Catholic allegiance so far. Dominican Publications have Doctrine & Life, Religious Life Review and Spirituality and the Jesuits have the Sacred Heart Messenger probably one of the best and most popular of the devotional magazines in Ireland and Studies, a quarterly journal with a far more intellectual emphasis. There's also Intercom a magazine on liturgy (Novus Ordo)- they've no website.