Hundreds gather for 'Dare to Hope' in Knock
The event coincides with the opening of a new facility at the Marian Shrine, which has been specially designed to cater for young pilgrims.
A €1.5 million investment has led to the construction of ten bespoke 'eco pods', which can accommodate those visiting the area.
It will be made available exclusively for school and young adult retreats, as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the Church is relevant and accessible to future generations.
The Youth Village has been designed to blend in with the surroundings, with each of the pods using sustainable energy and offering a range of smart technology facilities.
Today's meeting features a number of discussions on the relevance of faith to those aged between 18 and 30.
It has been organised to facilitate greater engagement and discussion among this age cohort.
As well as hearing from a number of speakers, participants will attend panel discussions and prayer services during the day.
Catholic Bishop of Cork and Ross Fintan Gavin said the event aimed to provide a space for young people to explore their faith and find hope in a world where many were searching for purpose and belonging.
The 'Dare to Hope' gathering today comes ahead of of an international Jubilee celebration in Rome next month, which is expected to draw thousands of people to the city for the culmination of the Catholic year of celebration.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Clodagh Finn: Lessons to save us from reinventing the wheel in the fight for equality
Here is a little-known fact about the setting up of the Rape Crisis Centre in Ireland. When asked, Charlie Haughey, then a TD, happily and speedily went about obtaining a telephone service – and 'a new-fangled answering machine' – for the nascent helpline. 'I will be glad to assist you,' he wrote in a letter to founder member Evelyn Conlon in September 1978, 'and if you let me have the address of the centre I will get in touch with the Minister of State at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on your behalf.' Then, Evelyn Conlon, Anne O'Donnell, the centre's first administrator, and a group of 19 volunteers went about, first, learning how to use the answering machine and, once they got 'the amazed hang of it', opening the lines. It was February 19, 1979. 'We learned, ferociously, and on their feet, Everything from listening, advocating, accompanying to Garda stations, attending court,' Conlon writes in After the Train (UCD Press), a gloriously affirming collection of essays that sets out not only what was wrong in Irish society 50 years ago but, more importantly, how it was righted. Charlie Haughey's contribution is mentioned in the book as an aside, but it somehow jumped out at this reader as a vivid example of what can happen when someone identifies an issue, speaks up and then goes about doing something to change it. The power and effectiveness of that three-step dance is evident on every page of this account of what happened after the famous contraceptive train from Dublin to Belfast jolted a Catholic country into a conversation about contraception and bodily autonomy. I like to think that momentous outing in 1971 by the Irish Women's Liberation Movement to illegally import contraceptives to Dublin is universally remembered (please tell me that it is), but what has certainly fallen below the radar is the fearless work carried out by the members of Irishwomen United (IWU) in the years that followed. Hands up, now. Which of you can outline the work done by this group of women – 'wailers broadcasting the death of the old regime' – who plotted volcanic change during their Sunday afternoon meetings in an upper room in 12 Pembroke Street in Dublin? You won't find it in the history books, apart from a dismissive paragraph here or there; examples of the kind of 'stalwart myopia' that inflamed writer Evelyn Conlon to join forces with academic Rebecca Pelan to gather the voices of the women who were there. Picture: UCD Press In 20 essays, they recall the crackling energy, the excitement and the considerable trepidation of coming together to tease out the issues of the day – 'the taboos, restrictions, inequalities, discriminations, exclusions, violence and coercion that dogged our lives', to quote Ger Moane's illustrative and profoundly dispiriting list. One of those restrictions, banal and accepted at the time, was the widespread refusal to serve women pints in pubs. Here, from Gaye Cunningham, is a wonderful description of how the women who went before us, including the late, great Nell McCafferty, went about changing that: [Nell] went into one of the pubs that refused to serve women pints and, accompanied by a group of 30 or so women, ordered brandies. When the drinks were served, she ordered a pint of Guinness; when the barman refused to serve, they refused to pay. It was, writes Cunningham, one of the lighter, more madcap moments in the history of the women's movement, although there was certainly something madcap and magnificent about the day – July 24, 1974 – a band of IWU members 'invaded' the all-male bathing spot, the Forty Foot, in south county Dublin. They invaded the 'men-only' Fitzwilliam Tennis Club too and, in 1976, they burst into the Federated Union of Employers headquarters to campaign for equal pay. Looking back, Mary Doran writes: 'I am amazed at our confidence and how we felt that the end justified the means.' And what fearlessness. In 1973, Maura O'Dea, a single mother, wrote a letter to a newspaper in an attempt to get in touch with other 'unmarried mothers', to use the phrase of the time, who had kept their babies as well as those who had been forced to give them up for adoption. It was the start of Cherish, now One Family, an organisation that not only showed there was such a thing as lone parenting but advocated to improve their rights. The IWU took a stand on a wide range of issues, campaigning for access to free contraception, LGBT+ rights, bodily autonomy and equal pay. As Mary Dorcey writes: 'We women's liberationists and gay activists, passionate but inexperienced, transformed our country from the ground up… We were the first generation to refuse to emigrate, or to be silenced, or banished. We insisted on making noise and making our presence felt.' They made space for the new, or rather the shock of the new. For the first time, publishing houses (Attic Press and Arlen House) laid open the 'untravelled terrain' of writing about the body and female experience. Picture via Evelyn Conlon private collection Another Mary (O'Donnell, poet and author of the excellent, just out Walking Ghosts, Mercier Press) recalls the influence of norm-breaking poet Eavan Boland: 'Until then, the body had not been permitted space in poetry or literature. So those of us who included aspects of feminine experience in our writing were really like frontier women heading into the unknown.' Those frontier women carved out new pathways and set up a number of organisations that still exist today – the aforementioned Rape Crisis Centre and the Well Woman Centre to mention two. In acknowledging, remembering and celebrating that fevered time, After the Train also makes it clear that feminism did not start with them. It quotes the incomparable Hilda Tweedy, founder member of the Irish Housewives Association and author of A Link in the Chain: So many people think that the women's movement was born on some mystical date in 1970, when it had actually been a long continuous battle… each generation adding something to the last. That is really important to remember in a week when Women's Aid reported the highest level of disclosure of domestic abuse in its 50-year history. It, like so many other feminist organisations, has its roots in those mould-breaking days of the 1970s. (Indeed, Women's Aid gave the fledgling Rape Crisis Centre a room in its building in Harcourt Terrace.) At a time when it seems we have made no progress, particularly when it comes to the epidemic of violence against women, it's important to remember what went before. As Evelyn Conlon so eloquently puts it: '… 'We always need to keep our eyes on the history books, because every time we take our eye off the true telling of what happened, we create the necessity to begin inventing the wheel all over again.' The wheel, though it might not feel like it, is indeed turning. Take this single example. When the Well Woman centre opened its doors in 1978, it 'elicited zero media coverage', writes founder Anne Connolly. Not a line. News of it made the papers only when four anti-abortionists picketed the clinic, a backfiring protest if ever there was one as it gave the centre the kind of publicity it could never afford. Now, at least, the issues ignored in the 1970s are mainstream news. On the same day that Women's Aid CEO Sarah Benson was invited to speak at length on the flagship Six One News, a documentary about Natasha O'Brien, the woman randomly and brutally attacked on the street by ex-soldier Cathal Crotty, aired on RTÉ. 'Don't bite your tongue,' she said, a mantra needed as much now as it ever was. Just remember, though, that we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We are links in a very long and interconnected chain. Read More Justice minister promises domestic violence register following report on record abuse complaints
Irish Daily Mirror
26-06-2025
- Irish Daily Mirror
Three people abandoned as babies in Ireland believe fourth is out there
Three people who were abandoned as babies in Ireland in the '60s and later discovered they are siblings believe they have a fourth brother or sister. David McBride, born in 1962, was left in a car in a Belfast driveway. John Dowling, born in 1965, was found in a Drogheda phone box and Helen Ward, born in 1968, was discovered in a Dundalk phone box. All three were adopted and raised in different parts of Ireland. However, in 2020, Helen and David discovered they were brother and sister through DNA technology and reunited on the ITV series Long Lost Family. They were both shocked to discover that they had another full sibling, John. The long-lost siblings are now seeking help as they believe they have a fourth sibling. As part of a new RTÉ documentary called The Phone Box Babies, the family hope it will encourage their sibling to get in touch. The programme follows them as they uncover untold stories that reflect the Ireland of the past. Their mother was a young Catholic woman from the Republic of Ireland who, in the 1940s, began an affair with a married Protestant man from Northern Ireland, who was 17 years her senior and had 14 children of his own. This affair endured for decades and, in that time, David, John, and Helen were born – and given up. Speaking about the documentary, Helen said: "This documentary has opened up the lines of communication about our biological parents, with people willing to share their stories. "I hope the documentary fosters understanding and empathy, especially about what it's like to have to question your roots. I hope it encourages people to be open and receptive to helping others with similar experiences. The longing for connection with family is valid and deeply human." During the documentary, the siblings confront some painful truths about their parents' complex relationship, who are both dead. And while they unravel the impact the abandonment had on their lives, Helen, David and John open their arms to new family members. They discover they have many half-siblings and are determined to unearth the buried secrets of their family's past, in the hope that it will bring them closer together.
Irish Examiner
25-06-2025
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: Women have choice in theory, but money rules
The question of why attitudes to procreation and family size have radically altered is both fascinating and complicated. The global fertility rate is, on average, less than half what it was in the 1960s. The fertility crisis has implications for individuals and societies, and Ireland is no different. The falling birth rates present society with a significant challenge. Practically, we need more people of working age to support the growing number of pensioners who are living longer. A new national women's health survey, commissioned by the Irish Examiner and conducted among over 1,000 women aged 18 and above, has revealed some interesting facts about the choice to have children. The word 'choice' has a long, dark history in Ireland, where many battles were fought over a woman's right to choose to procreate in a country which coercively forced women into having large families. Several older women I have met made it clear that they would rather not have had big families. Some seem borderline bitter about it. In the early 90s, when I was at college, the biggest concern young women had was not getting pregnant. College doctors were still delivering lectures on morality and refusing to hand out prescriptions for the pill. How many children were born as a result of those older male GPs imposing their Catholic views on students? It's infinitely more civilised that reproductive decisions are now the choice of women and couples. However, can a choice not to have a child be said to be genuine if it's fettered by economics and infrastructure so that you are effectively priced out of the baby market? The Irish Examiner survey revealed last week that one in three women cannot afford to have a baby, or another child, with younger women in particular forced to put family plans on hold. The question asked was: "Financially, I don't feel I am in a position to have a child/another child". Housing You don't need to be a deep thinker to compute that the lack of affordable housing constitutes a significant barrier to having children. With census figures showing 41% of Irish people aged 18 to 34 still live with their parents, and Eurostat figures pegging that figure even higher, at two out of three young people in that age bracket, the question arises as to how people even get pregnant. Or develop stable emotional relationships that might lead to the desire or conditions to have a family in the first place. The housing crisis is affecting many countries worldwide, but in Ireland, a significant ideological shift is necessary in how we perceive property ownership. The purpose of property used to be for a family or an individual to have an independent life, not to accumulate wealth from land ownership. Sadly, young people are being prevented from reaching milestones that we once took for granted, such as flying the coop and getting on with their lives. Childcare One thing that hasn't changed is that a proper, high-quality, publicly funded childcare system remains elusive here. The report on the National Agency for Early Learning and Childcare may not be delivered until 2026, with no indication of when the long-awaited agency will be established. Many parents are already paying the equivalent of a second mortgage for childcare. In many couples with two parents working, they are just about staying solvent because they've chosen to have a family. This directly limits family size. I would wager that while the financial burden of childcare falls on a couple, the majority of working fathers do not obsess over childcare in the same way that working mothers do, and that hasn't changed because, generally, the disproportionate burden of childcare falls on mothers. The system is stacked against you. There is nothing more likely to push you into a toilet cubicle to have a quiet cry when your childminder hands in her notice, even though you believed her every wish was your command, because you were hell-bent on keeping her. Alternatively, finding childcare places is both challenging and among the most expensive in Europe. Suppose you have a partner who isn't present due to their career. In that case, it's a rollercoaster of hard choices, because it's primarily women who fill those inevitable gaps when children are sick, something goes wrong, or when you have to frantically juggle a boss's demands with children's needs. One friend, whose mother did all her childminding, shopping, and cooking, was the envy of us all for years. When that arrangement ended, she gave up work, not necessarily without a significant degree of resentment. The Irish Examiner survey indicates that some Irish women would be willing to have children sooner or have larger families, provided there are appropriate political interventions to create conditions conducive to doing so, namely, available and affordable housing and childcare. Shifting values But it also seems plausible that the notion of motherhood as the primary placeholder for women's desires has lost some of its cultural currency. The last census in Ireland revealed that the number of childless families had increased to 394,052, representing a significant shift since 2016, with the birth rate dropping to its lowest point in 60 years. No single factor likely contributes to people feeling empowered to have children at the right time, but as the Iona Institute pointed out in a paper earlier this year, a shift in values may also be behind the plummeting fertility rates. They link this to a decline in religious affiliation. Whatever about the link between religious belief and falling fertility rates, some people are almost certainly deciding that it's not worth the hassle. It seems plausible that the notion of motherhood as the primary placeholder for women's desires has lost some of its cultural currency. File picture A UN report released this month, following an extensive global survey of 14,000 people in 14 countries across five continents, exposed several uncomfortable truths. For example, in Sweden, where public childcare is excellent, a third of the Swedes surveyed stated they still didn't want to invest the time and energy required to have children. Like it or not, the reality is that more people live full lives without children, although parents, or what I loosely think of as the 'Baby on Board' sticker brigade, often seem to believe otherwise. The UN report also highlighted how, in 'many countries', men have a greater desire for more children than women. It also revealed that women want more 'supportive partners'. These facts are noteworthy. Younger women who may be more financially independent and therefore more empowered than older generations may think, "Hang on a second, this isn't a good deal for me". Economists have highlighted the 'child penalty', which is the pay cut that women disproportionately suffer when they have a child, which, as Dr Dora Tuda, an ERSI research officer, commenting on the Irish Examiner survey said is 'on average experience a 20% income loss after having a child compared to men with the same experience and qualifications. This is because of maternity leave — once they return to work, it takes time to catch up. They may lose chances of promotion'. Like it or not, the reality is that more people live full lives without children. File picture Pouring their lives into children is riskier for women. Maybe that dampens their zeal for procreation and leaves them with a rational desire to be 'child-free' rather than 'childless'. Certainly, in Ireland, the days of lying on your back as a woman and thinking of old Ireland are thankfully long gone. The question that both the Irish Examiner and UN surveys leave us with is how we, as a society, can make parenthood more accessible and less burdensome while also supporting individuals who choose not to have children, so that we can all lead meaningful and full lives.
