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Voices
Kevin Hargaden is a theologian with the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age, published by Wipf and Stock.
The first provisional results for the European Parliament elections are announced at the European Parliament building in Brussels June 9, 2024. (OSV News photo/Piroschka van de Wouw, Reuters)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
The elections results suggest that European states will set stricter policies on immigration, raising levels of despair among asylum seekers and hundreds of thousands of people living without official status across Europe.
The three Irish Government leaders from left, Minister Eamon Ryan, Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin speak to the media during a press conference outside the Government Buildings, in Dublin, Ireland, on May 22, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state. (Damien Storan/PA via AP)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
Palestinians face a much stronger neighbor who apparently can occupy territory with impunity. Irish people, with a strong cultural memory of British rule, have a visceral reaction to such a situation, he suggests.
Children place Easter lilies on a lawn during an event in Dublin on March 15, 2020. (CNS photo/Brian Lawless, Reuters)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
The misogynistic language of the old Constitution may be removed, but in its place will be clauses that relinquish the state of any real responsibility to support family caregivers, critics say.
Father Gerard Quirke raises the chalice at Mass Rock overlooking Keem Bay on Ireland's Achill Island April 4, 2021. The church in Ireland is launching a Year for Vocations as it grapples with a steep decline in seminary numbers and with aging priests. (OSV News photo/Seán Molloy, courtesy Irish Catholic)
FaithDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
RTÉ aired two documentaries in January looking at the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland: “The Last Priests in Ireland” and “The Last Nuns in Ireland.” But signs of hope can still be discerned amid the decline after years of church turbulence.
Protesters outside Leinster House, Dublin, as the Dail resumes after summer recess on Sept. 20. (Press Association via AP Images)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
The protest was organized over social media, where it was dubbed “Call to the Dáil,” drawing participants from far-right groups and individuals nurturing a host of grievances and anxieties about contemporary Irish society, from Covid-19 conspiracies to immigration and transgender issues, housing shortages and the economy.
A memorial march marks the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland, on Jan. 30, 2022. Families of the 14 unarmed Catholics killed by the British military in 1972 are challenging the British government's resistance to prosecuting the soldiers in the courts. (CNS photo/Clodagh Kilcoyne, Reuters)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
With so many political and cultural forces arrayed against the Legacy and Reconciliation proposal, why has Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government pressed on?
A woman and her baby watch the Orange Order celebrations in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on July 12, 2022. Data from the 2021 census showed 45.7% of respondents identified as Catholic or were brought up Catholic, compared with 43.5% identifying as Protestants, the first time in more than a century that Catholics outnumber Protestants. (CNS photo/Clodagh Kilcoyne, Reuters)
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
A proposal to make "the 12th" an all-Ireland holiday has not been not met with a warm reception. A former government minister described the popular response as “a mixture of diatribe and incredulity.”
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
Sidestepping reservations individual party members must have about being associated with the pomp and ceremony of a very anti-republican spectacle, Sinn Féin hopes to demonstrate diplomatic gravitas and a mature capacity to lead all Ireland.
Children from The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., hold hands as they are taken to a reunification site at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a deadly shooting at their school on Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise)
Politics & SocietyLast Take
Kevin Hargaden
I was a teenager at the time of the Columbine High School shooting. No one could mistake suburban Dublin for anyone’s utopia, but even then my friends and I could recognize that we might as well live in a different galaxy.
Politics & SocietyDispatches
Kevin Hargaden
Mr. Biden’s visit is not just a symbolic endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement. The future of the accords has been thrown into doubt by the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union via its Brexit vote.