Gladys Ganiel – Page 8 – Slugger O'Toole

Can I Stay in the Catholic Church? by Brian Lennon–Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on April 10, 2013, 12:22 pm

| Readers 90

Can I Stay in the Catholic Church? It’s a question many Catholics have answered in their droves, leaving the Catholic Church with their proverbial feet. In his latest book, Can I Stay in the Catholic Church? (Columba, 2012), Jesuit Brian Lennon ultimately answers ‘yes.’ But it is his argument that those who choose to stay in the Catholic Church should take it upon themselves to change the church that it is most compelling. Lennon has worked for more than 30 …

Ex- Combatants, Religion and Peace in Northern Ireland: Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on March 7, 2013, 12:44 pm

| Readers 112

It’s probably safe to assume that most people in Northern Ireland would not associate religion either with ‘peace’, or with ‘ex-combatants.’ But a new book by John Brewer, David Mitchell and Gerard Leavey, Ex-Combatants, Religion and Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of Religion in Transitional Justice (Palgrave, 2013) fruitfully brings the three together and left me wondering why it hadn’t been done before. For me, two of the research’s findings are of particular significance: Religion was not a significant …

What’s the Point of the Peace Rallies?

Gladys Ganiel on December 17, 2012, 7:16 pm

| Readers 41

Over the weekend, thousands of people gathered at Belfast City Hall to support a pair of events that aimed to restore hope and calm to a city rocked by pre-Christmas protests and riots. As has been well-documented, the disturbances have been sparked by the City Council’s decision to fly the union flag only on designated days. The first was Saturday morning’s Peace Prayer, which I attended at the dusky hour of 8.30 am. It was simply five minutes of silent …

Philip Orr’s New Perspectives – Politics, Religion and Conflict in Mid-Antrim, 1911-1914: Book Review and Website Launch

Gladys Ganiel on October 8, 2012, 4:08 pm

| Readers 317

A valuable resource on local history went digital last week with the launch of a new website called ‘New Perspectives’ on Home Rule,hosted by the Braid Mid-Antrim Museum in Ballymena. The content of the website is based on a book by Philip Orr, New Perspectives: Politics, Religion and Conflict in Mid-Antrim, 1911-1914, published last year by the Mid-Antrim Museum. The website is geared towards classroom teaching in years 10 and 14, but includes images and access to materials that would …

David Trimble and Michael McDowell on the Ulster Covenant

Gladys Ganiel on September 24, 2012, 2:38 pm

| Readers 93

The Institute for British-Irish Studies (IBIS) at UCD and the Irish Association hosted a conference Saturday on ‘The Ulster Covenant and Contemporary Ireland’ at the Linenhall Library in Belfast. Addressed by a range of academics, former politicians, and journalists, the conference included historical and contemporary perspectives. Former UUP leader David Trimble (or Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, as he is known these days) and Michael McDowell, former Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, were asked to provide a …

How will the Churches Remember the Ulster Covenant?

Gladys Ganiel on September 21, 2012, 8:50 am

| Readers 148

As the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant (28 September – Ulster Day) approaches, numerous events are planned to mark the event. Indeed, throughout the year the Ulster Covenant has been a hot topic of discussion at conferences, lectures, community events, and in the media. Given that the Ulster Covenant links the cause of Protestantism and Unionism with the will of God, it will be interesting to see how Northern Ireland’s Protestant churches remember the covenant. In 1912, …

Church Leaders Call Royal Black Behaviour ‘Un-Christian’: Is Parading a ‘Right’ for Christians?

Gladys Ganiel on August 30, 2012, 5:19 pm

| Readers 140

With Unionist politicians lining up to criticise the Parades Commission and defend the Royal Black Institution parade in Belfast this past weekend, the Presbyterian Moderator (Roy Patton) and Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (Alan Harper) have called the conduct of those who took part ‘un-Christian.’ In an interview last night on UTV, Patton said: I think any right thinking person would consider that what we viewed is not in keeping with Christian profession. When asked directly if he thought that the …

Scottish Irish Conversations on Sectarianism–Edinburgh Festival of Politics

Gladys Ganiel on August 18, 2012, 4:55 pm

| Readers 77

This year’s Edinburgh Festival of Politics is underway. On Friday I took part in one of the opening sessions of the festival, a panel discussion billed as ‘Scottish Irish Conversations on Sectarianism.’ The discussion was an initiative of the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (IISS). While part of the festival, it is also the first in a planned two-year series of discussions on various topics affecting these nations. I was joined on the panel by historian …

Is Ireland Abandoning Religion?

Gladys Ganiel on August 8, 2012, 12:08 pm

| Readers 254

A headline in today’s Belfast Telegraph announces: ‘Republic of Ireland Abandoning Religion Faster than almost any other Country.’ Breda Heffernan and Colm Kelpie report on an international poll conducted by Red C, which found that: An overwhelming 69% of Irish people declared themselves to be “a religious person” in the last survey conducted in 2005, but this has now plummeted to 47%. According to the data, only Vietnam is experiencing a faster drop in religiosity than the Republic. The Red …

Celebrating Northern Ireland’s Olympic Past and Future in Antrim and Dervock

Gladys Ganiel on July 17, 2012, 4:28 pm

| Readers 47

This week features two events highlighting Northern Ireland’s Olympic past and future in athletics. Tomorrow evening, 18 July, will be an opportunity to see top local athletes compete against Olympic runners from Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Djbouti. The Antrim Stadium will play host to the first Brian Downing Memorial International, organised by Athletics Northern Ireland and Lagan Valley Athletics Club, at 7 pm. Saturday 21 July the Kennedy Kane McArthur Festival of Running will take place in Dervock. This event honours the …

Johnston McMaster’s Overcoming Violence – Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on June 14, 2012, 3:16 pm

| Readers 357

In his latest book, Overcoming Violence: Dismantling an Irish History and Theology – An Alternative Vision (Columba, 2012), Rev Dr Johnston McMaster offers a challenge to everyone living on this island: Entering into the increasingly talked about ‘decade of commemorations,’ how might we remember our painful past together, in order that we might walk forward together? At the launch of the book, the Rev Harold Good emphasized its challenging character, saying: ‘I found this to be a very confrontational book. …

BelfastHistory.org Goes Online

Gladys Ganiel on May 30, 2012, 5:25 pm

| Readers 76

With stories ranging from pubs bottling their own Guinness, to Belfast street games, to making a splash at the Falls Baths, a new local history website has gone online. BelfastHistory.org, created by web developer Brian O’Neill, is a non-profit, community-orientated history website where people are invited to share their own stories, reflections, and articles about any period of Belfast’s past. So far, the site has attracted entries from the likes of historian Philip Orr, author of The Road to the …

Talking about Reconciliation …

Gladys Ganiel on April 9, 2012, 4:48 pm

| Readers 48

After last week’s Political Studies Association (PSA) conference in Belfast, I asked if ‘reconciliation’ was making a tentative return to public debate in Northern Ireland. Well, the R-word got some more airing over the weekend, with Sinn Fein’s Declan Kearney making it a centrepiece at the Easter commemoration at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast. Though he doesn’t mention Kearney’s address, Brian Walker notes that there have been plenty of ‘soft politics’ over the Easter period and speculates that the DUP …

The Gospel According to Christy Moore

Gladys Ganiel on March 16, 2012, 5:43 pm

| Readers 896

‘I wish more people had been here to hear that.’ So whispered a parishioner from St Oliver’s Plunkett’s in Lenadoon, who was sitting behind me last night at Fitzroy Presbyterian’s performance of ‘The Gospel According to Christy Moore,’ in St Oliver’s Plunkett’s Church. Rev Steve Stockman of Fitzroy had just asked the Catholics in the audience for forgiveness, because of what he identified as his forebears’ oppression of their forebears. Indeed, over the course of the evening, Stockman explained that …

Can Northern Ireland ‘Embrace the Language of Profound Change’?

Gladys Ganiel on March 13, 2012, 3:34 pm

| Readers 33

In a research report launched today at NICVA, ‘Progressing Good Relations and Reconciliation in Post Agreement Northern Ireland,’ the University of Ulster’s Gráinne Kelly identified as her number one recommendation that political leaders and policy makers should ‘embrace the language of profound change.’ This finding resonates with me, because I’ve become increasingly concerned about the apparent turning away from the language of ‘reconciliation,’ by politicians and policy makers, as exemplified in the Cohesion, Sharing and Integration document. Like Kelly, I …

How We Remember: Drama, Discussion & Everyday Objects Exhibition

Gladys Ganiel on February 26, 2012, 9:43 am

| Readers 78

How we remember our past says a lot about what we think about the future. Over the next few months, a number of events are happening throughout Northern Ireland in an attempt to kick-start further discussion on memory, including its role in understanding difference, opening ourselves up to different points of view, and (in some fortunate cases) promoting healing. There are of course those who think any commemoration or discussion of a violent and contested past is divisive – I …

Douglas Murray – Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry, Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on January 6, 2012, 8:02 am

| Readers 4603

The aftermath of the Saville Inquiry into the events around Bloody Sunday has left me, and I suspect many others, with one enduring image: Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology in the House of Commons, where he says that the actions of the British Army were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ But there’s a lot more to the findings of the Saville Inquiry than that. Douglas Murray’s 2011 book, Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry, distils some of the most relevant …

“Time for the beginning of a calm debate” on Northern Ireland’s Demographics

Gladys Ganiel on January 4, 2012, 2:25 pm

| Readers 1052

Today’s Irish Times carries a detailed piece on demographic changes in Northern Ireland. Northern editor Gerry Moriarity writes: THE BRITISH and Irish governments and the people of Northern Ireland are facing the prospect – and sooner than most people might think – of how to manage a transformed constitutional situation where the majority in the North are likely to be from a Catholic background. It’s going to raise serious questions for southerners too, who must also address complex constitutional problems …

Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland

Gladys Ganiel on December 18, 2011, 1:53 pm

| Readers 851

This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, when he summed up its key message as: ‘the main churches here walked away from their moral responsibility to give leadership during the Troubles.’ The …

Down and Connor’s Living Church Report: An Evaluation

Gladys Ganiel on November 15, 2011, 10:31 am

| Readers 119

The Diocese of Down and Connor’s Living Church project, begun earlier this year with a listening process in local parishes, has produced an initial Report (available in full here). Officially launched on 3 November and distributed in parishes the past two weekends, the Report draws on the contributions of the more than 3,000 people who participated in the listening process. The Report identifies five areas “for further discussion and work,” according to Bishop Noel Treanor’s Forward. The Report itself devotes …