Search Results for 'Religion'

LOCALLY BASED Blue Pig Theatre Co are in the Town Hall studio next week with a welcome revival of their hit staging of John Godber and Jane Thornton’s uproarious comedy, Shakers Restirred.

The anger and violence that erupted against the Protestant Irish Church Missions and their schools and orphanages in western Connemara towards the end of the 19th century, makes for harrowing reading today.

Just a few weeks ago, during a visit to Athens, I stood on the hillock known as the Areopagus where it is recorded that Paul preached the Gospel to the sages of ancient Greece.

St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church will hold this year’s Annual Ecumenical Service for Galway this Sunday at 7.30pm.

In a week when The Irish Times reports an unseemly brawl between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks who physically battled over turf and influence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, I was reminded of the unfortunate battle for the souls of Catholics in the aftermath of the Great Famine. This episode in Connemara’s long history still engenders passionate feelings today. The expression ‘they took the soup’ is still very much alive. At the time the campaign for souls splintered communities, and divided families. In a new book Soupers and Jumpers* Miriam Moffitt reminds us that Catholics and Protestants were convinced that their religion - and only theirs - was the ‘one true faith,’ and that anyone who lived, or more importantly died, outside their particular belief system could not enter heaven. From the middle of the 19th century, the poor of Connemara and the Dublin slums were targeted by the well intentioned Anglican Irish Church Missions.

With all the talk about uncertain times and recession, wouldn’t it be good to start considering possibility instead? Galway based life coach David Keane says that people need encouragement when times are tough — there is nothing like a good dose of old fashioned fear to freeze the entrepreneurial spirit in its tracks, and unfortunately there has been no shortage of that in recent times.

St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church be the location for Galway’s contribution to the World Day of Prayer tomorrow at 8pm.

Deeper Well, the Kerry-based band are lining up an intimate gig tonight (Friday) April 3 in the Springhill Court Hotel Kilkenny.

A former member of Bob Marley and the Wailers band Natty Wailer will be hosting his very own jamming session in Cleeres in May.