In May 1991, the member states of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the governing body of the WHO (World Health Organisation), promised to ‘eliminate leprosy as a public health problem’ by the year 2000. The 1991...
The persuasive Irish have perfected their use of stories. They use the power of language to carefully craft detailed images and metaphors, to evoke emotion, or make a point, where non-fiction would struggle. Our poets, authors and songwriters have been...
A little north of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, you’ll find the small Postman’s Park. Nestled beneath an unassuming wooden shelter, there is a wall with a series of 54 tiles. Each one carries at least one name, every name the name of a hero who laid down life to save another. Surprisingly, many are the...
Can you make sense of this picture? It is April Fool’s Day, but the above image is taken naturally, and has had no computer-generated...
Imagine having a condition which meant you are unable to feel pain. It sounds blissful.
Yet, for Steven and his brother, this was far from the case.[1] When he was 4-5 months old, he began chewing on his tongue as he was teething, unable to sense the pain this would usually cause. Once...
What would the Social Media universe have looked like if the people watching Jesus riding into Jerusalem were busy on their phones? Well, if anyone ever goes back in a time machine and gives Jesus’ disciples iPhones, maybe these sort of things are what you would see…
It all started when Jesus, en route to Jerusalem, tweeted...
On Sunday, 28th October 1787, an English politician wrote in his diary, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the Reformation of society.” This man was William Wilberforce, who committed himself to fighting against an institution that had been integral to European economies for...
One in three people worldwide are infected. When it becomes active, without proper treatment, it will be fatal for up to two thirds of cases. In fact, it is second only to AIDS in deaths caused by a single infectious agent. In 2013, it killed 1.5 million people worldwide.[1]
Today is World Tuberculosis...
On one side of the world:
8 billion people, around 1 in 6 people, drinks water contaminated with faeces.[1]More people have access to mobile phones than working toilets. Only a third of the population of India has access to adequate sanitation.[2]
In 76% of households, women and children bear...
This is Indrakhala. She lives in the beautiful country of Nepal. She has her home next to the mud homes of her extended family.[1]
Yet the key word here is ‘next to’. In this photo she gently smiles, but, in reality,...
Ireland has been officially neutral in terms of international conflict for around 8 decades, since the 1930s.
Yet it has not been immune from the turmoil of the 20th century, which saw the advent of the largest and most destructive wars of all...
Ireland has only 0.064% of the world’s population. Yet it has international influence that far exceeds its size. Today, St Patrick’s celebrations involve over 150,000 people in New York City alone,[1] and around 34 million Americans...
When did you last see a headline celebrating a growth in GDP as a major success for a country? A falling GDP is part of what it means to be in ‘recession’ – that dreaded word that has haunted Western economies for the...
Sunday was International Women’s Day. It adopted the strapline “Make it Happen”. It’s a clear statement that enough talking has been done – it’s time to...
Climate Change. What comes to mind? Protesters tying banners on factory chimneys? Radical environmentalists? Al Gore? When one sees the issues of the world, from child soldiers to mass oppression to even genocide, why do we need to worry about whether the summer is...
Yesterday was Hina-matsuri, otherwise known as “the Doll’s Festival”, in Japan. Families construct seven-tiered stands onto which they place Hina-ningyo: dolls made especially for the festival. They carefully arrange figurines...
Maybe you missed it on Friday, but it was International Polar Bear Day.
What does the Polar Bear make you think of? Cute, fluffy animals? A...
The 1952 polio epidemic killed 3,145 and paralysed 21,269 men, women and children in the US. Two years later, on 23 February 1954, Virologist Jonas Salk brought a glimmer of hope to Pittsburgh. On this day, 61 years ago, the...
It looks to a bright hope of a future in which all people, regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality, age, background, or disability, have equal prospects to flourish. It looks to a society in which no person is treated as inferior to another for any reason whatsoever. One only has...
For some it’s little more than a curiosity following Pancake day. For others it’s a time of deep searching and resolution.
Yesterday, Ash Wednesday...
27th January 1945 was a momentous day in history. 70 years ago today, Soviet forces liberated the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp. The liberation of Auschwitz was a red letter day...
Today is National Pie Day in the USA. It’s not to be confused with the number Pi, or the film the Life of Pi, which focusses more on being stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger! It’s genuinely a day celebrating the symbolic, economic, and tasty qualities of pie! It’s sponsored by the American Pie Council (such an...
Today is Errol Barrow’s birthday. It’s a public holiday in Barbados. It’s a reminder that effective political change can come without violence, terrorism or war. It’s also a reminder that political inertia and bureaucracy can be overcome. It’s a reminder that, used properly and effectively,...
Volumes and volumes have already been written about the events in Paris last week. There is little I can add to the discussion. But, I prayerfully remember God’s command, through the writings of St. Paul in his letter to the early Christian community...
Let me pose an unusual question: What do cats, avocados and oil tankers have in common? Answer: All three have become threats to the unique environment of the Galápagos Islands, part of Ecuador, located in the Pacific Ocean. Made famous by the work of...
Today would have been the date St Patrick, Jonathan Swift and William Shakespeare celebrated as New Year’s Day. You and I might say it’s the 14th January, but according to the Julian calendar,...
Any thoughts on today’s cartoon? How have we got into a situation when so few people hold such an incredible proportion of the world’s wealth?...
180 years ago today, 7th January 1835, HMS Beagle dropped anchor on the Chonos Archipelago. Charles Darwin was on board. He would spend the next number of weeks conducting research. By...
What do you think? Any comments or thoughts are welcome…
On 2nd January every year, the streets of Cape Town, South Africa, are filled with ecstatic crowds. It’s the Kaapse Klopse (‘Cape Clubs’) carnival, a time of joyful music, bright costumes, and unified community.
Kaapse Klopse has its roots in the regrettable days of slavery. Until the 1830s, slavery was common in...
Did you see last Friday’s cartoon? The statistic is startling. The United Nations confirms that 12 million hectares of land useful farming land is lost each year.[1] That’s an area almost...
What could you buy with €1? Most places in Ireland wouldn’t even give you a glass of lemonade for this price, let alone a Mocha coffee! Yet for a quarter of India, a quarter of a billion people, this is the reality at good times. Spilling a Mocha coffee could signify starvation for half a week! How much do we really value fairness?
Any thoughts on this cartoon? Any other...
In UK, more than one third of adolescent girls, and one fifth of boys, have self-harmed.[1] In USA, suicide kills more young people than cancer.[2] Countless people have such a low sense of self...
How are you celebrating “World Soil Day”? I suspect that, for most reading this blog, it wasn’t high on your agenda.
There is a global community of 60,000 scientists who dedicate their...
Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The precise title of the day is important. It represents a progressive move in language and understanding: no person is fundamentally ‘disabled’. There are, more correctly, ‘persons with disabilities”. There are many things I can’t do. To start that list, let’s just say any...
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted by everybody.”
– Mother Teresa
Today is World AIDS day. Whatever you do to count down to Christmas, spare a thought for countless HIV-positive individuals would give anything they owned to be cured in the next 24 days. AIDS is at present...
Today is Advent Sunday, the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day – It marks the beginning of a season which many will associate with growing anticipation, even impatience, for the coming of Christmas. Nostalgic Christmas songs send shivers down our spines. Violet or blue colours adorn trees and churches, representing a...
Just over a month ago, India’s Mars probe, the Mangalyann, survived the 298-day journey to Mars, and was successfully in orbit around Mars. The Indian space programme is the fourth to reach Mars, after Russia, NASA and Europe. The Indian way of doing it is impressively different: NASA’s programme cost around $671 million while India’s was budgeted at around $74 million...