Gladys Ganiel – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

The Churches and the Lockdown Legacy

Gladys Ganiel on May 17, 2020, 7:00 am | Readers 1390

I am part of a conversation on ‘The Churches and the Lockdown Legacy’ on today’s Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster), also featuring Passionist priest and commentator Fr Brian D’Arcy and Rev Norman Hamilton, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church. Tune in at 9 a.m., or listen back here. The discussion is wide-ranging and includes reflection on the possibility of the permanent closure of some churches when the Covid-19 pandemic is over, how churches have moved on-line during the pandemic, …

Church during Lockdown? – From Virtual Religion to Bronagh Lawson’s ‘Belfast: City of Light’

Gladys Ganiel on May 2, 2020, 7:00 am | Readers 2601

Earlier this week, the DUP’s Edwin Poots suggested that churches could reopen as part of a process of exiting the Covid-19 lockdown. Poots’s comments have provoked debate. Fr Paddy McCafferty of Corpus Christi parish, Ballymurphy, told BBC Radio Ulster that if reopening could be safely achieved ‘we should certainly look at every possible way of achieving that’. Poots’s DUP colleague Paul Givan made a case for opening of churches with large buildings, arguing that social distancing could be achieved in …

A Triple Rainbow of Hope: Good Friday 1988

Gladys Ganiel on April 10, 2020, 9:26 am | Readers 1073

By now, we are all familiar with the rainbow as a symbol of hope during the Covid-19 crisis. Today, I am reminded of a Good Friday story of hope from our past: the sighting of a triple rainbow at the end of a Falls-Shankill Good Friday walk, organised by the ecumenical Cornerstone Community in 1988. The 1988 walk took place in the shadow of one of the most notorious periods of the Troubles, memorably recounted in the documentary 14 Days. Those …

Book Review: The Irish Presbyterian Mind by Andrew Holmes

Gladys Ganiel on April 6, 2020, 3:18 pm | Readers 1132

At a recent academic seminar, I remarked (only somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that what defines Irish Presbyterianism is that it cannot agree on anything. I was alluding to the fact that historically, Irish Presbyterians have disagreed on a range of theological, social and political issues; indeed, over several centuries Irish Presbyterians have been preoccupied by such ‘family feuds’. Today, Presbyterian disagreements tend to be reflected in rather crude caricatures of so-called ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative evangelical’ wings of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland …

How Should we Remember Seamus Mallon? Together – in a Spirit of Christian Love and Forgiveness…

Gladys Ganiel on January 26, 2020, 7:30 am | Readers 2778

The passing of Seamus Mallon should remind us that Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace is due to the efforts of men and women of integrity whose non-violent politics and personal sacrifice got us to that point. We are fortunate that in the last year of his life, Seamus left us a memoir, A Shared Home Place, that not only recounted his historical role in the peace process but was orientated towards the future. In it, he advocated political ‘generosity’ and proposed …

Death of Broadcasting Pioneer Marian Finucane (1950-2020)

Gladys Ganiel on January 3, 2020, 10:47 am | Readers 1248

Irish broadcasting pioneer Marian Finucane died suddenly at her home yesterday, age 69. The Irish Times writes: Over the course of a career spanning almost five decades, she was at the vanguard of media and social change in Irish life, in particular when it came to the position and rights of Irish women. For millions of listeners across generations, her voice was as familiar as that of close family members. She will be remembered for her role on RTE’s Liveline phone-in programme; …

What a Day Out with the Redemptorists says about the Future of the Irish Catholic Church

Gladys Ganiel on November 27, 2019, 12:40 pm | Readers 1310

On Saturday I took part in a day-long gathering for friends and associates of the Redemptorists in Ireland. The event grew out of a similar meeting at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, during Pope Francis’ visit. Given that my biography of Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry Reynolds, Unity Pilgrim, was published earlier this year, I was asked to facilitate an afternoon workshop on ‘Unity Pilgrim: Challenged by the Stranger, Welcoming the Stranger’. I co-facilitated the workshop with Ed …

Book Review: The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1999, by Margaret M. Scull

Gladys Ganiel on November 25, 2019, 1:03 pm | Readers 4017

A rich and carefully-researched new book, The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1999 (Oxford University Press, 2019), offers fresh insights on the changing role of the Catholic Church and the personalities that drove its interventions during that fraught period. The author, Margaret M. Scull, a post-doctoral research fellow at NUI Galway, writes in a clear, accessible style, ensuring the text will be of interest not only to scholars, but a general readership. There will be a Belfast launch …

From ‘Unions and Unionism’ and Brexit, to Seamus Mallon’s ‘Shared Home Place’ …

Gladys Ganiel on October 17, 2019, 3:34 pm | Readers 1430

Next week, Queen’s University will host a symposium on ‘Unions and Unionism: Brexit and these Islands’. It’s an apt opportunity for reflection given the increasingly tumultuous Brexit negotiations and the DUP’s place in this precarious process. The symposium begins on Thursday 24 October, 4.45-6.30 pm with a keynote address on ‘Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit’ by Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford. Friday 25 October …

How Loyalism Remembers: Review of Ghosts of the Somme by Jonathan Evershed

Gladys Ganiel on July 30, 2019, 7:57 pm | Readers 3403

‘… commemoration of the Somme represents a (if not the) chief means by which Loyalists are able to participate in the political, cultural, and social life of Northern Ireland and attempts to circumscribe particular commemorative forms risks further alienating Loyalists from processes of peace-building in which they already perceive themselves as having little stake.’ – Jonathan Evershed, Ghosts of the Somme, p. 19 This is the most important argument in a new book by Jonathan Evershed, Ghosts of the Somme: …

Contentious Rituals: Parading the Nation in Northern Ireland by Jonathan Blake – Essential Reading for the Summer Season

Gladys Ganiel on June 19, 2019, 9:41 am | Readers 3707

Contentious Rituals: Parading the Nation in Northern Ireland (Oxford, 2019), a new book by American political scientist Jonathan Blake, is essential reading as Northern Ireland’s summer parading season begins in earnest. Blake helps us understand why those who parade – and those who don’t – are almost always talking past each other. Readers of this book should gain a better understanding of why those who parade genuinely feel that their culture is under attack and believe that their participation in …

Book Review: Neither Here nor There – The Many Voices of Liminality, featuring Pádraig Ó Tuama

Gladys Ganiel on April 8, 2019, 11:04 am | Readers 666

Liminality. It’s not necessarily a word that pops up in everyday conversation – unless you are an anthropologist. A new book, Neither Here nor There – The Many Voices of Liminality (The Lutterworth Press, 2019), edited by Timothy Carson, offers an impressive range of accessible, eclectic, entertaining, and informative meditations on liminality. Among its 17 contributing authors is poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama, leader of the Corrymeela Community since 2014. Liminality is the disorientation or unsettling that takes place …

Richard Moore on Forgiveness – Launch of the 2019 4 Corners Festival

Gladys Ganiel on January 13, 2019, 2:49 pm | Readers 652

The 2019 edition of the 4 Corners Festival (30 Jan-10 Feb) was launched on Friday, with Derry man Richard Moore addressing a prayer breakfast at the Holy Family parish centre in North Belfast. The 2019 Festival theme is ‘scandalous forgiveness’ – something which has characterised Moore’s life. When he was ten-years-old, Moore was walking home from school when he was struck and blinded by a plastic bullet fired by a British soldier. He never regained his sight. But he has …

How will we Remember Martin McGuinness?: Review of David Latimer’s ‘A Leap of Faith’

Gladys Ganiel on December 21, 2018, 3:58 pm | Readers 4071

A new book by Rev David Latimer, A Leap of Faith: How Martin McGuinness and I Worked Together for Peace, tells the story of the surprising but strong friendship between Latimer, the minister at First Derry Presbyterian Church, and the late Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin. It was a controversial friendship. There were those within Latimer’s own congregation, the wider Presbyterian Church, and unionism more generally who found it difficult to contemplate his close ties with a former IRA commander. …

Fr Gerry Reynolds’ Anniversary & his 1994 Sermon on Forgiveness after the Ceasefires

Gladys Ganiel on November 30, 2018, 11:40 am | Readers 1972

I am writing a biography of Fr Gerry Reynolds, a Redemptorist who served 32 years in Belfast’s Clonard Monastery. His ministry encompassed some of the most difficult days of the Troubles; and he dedicated himself to praying and working for an end to the violence. So I am perhaps more aware than most that today is the third anniversary of his death. I also am aware that while I began the biography a few months before he died, it is …

Faith beyond the Shadow of the Abuse Crisis: Review of Aidan Donaldson’s The Beatitudes of Pope Francis

Gladys Ganiel on August 29, 2018, 7:06 pm | Readers 1149

There is no doubt that Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland has been overshadowed by the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. On Radio Ulster’s Talkback discussion on the eve of the visit, presenter William Crawley strained to steer the conversation in any direction other than abuse. Slugger’s own Brian Walker focused on abuse in his post-visit analysis. And in my own reflections, I argued that the visit ‘had become an unofficial referendum on the Papal handling of clerical sexual abuse …

Has ‘The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis’ reached Ireland? Review of New Book by Gerry O’Hanlon

Gladys Ganiel on August 3, 2018, 12:20 pm | Readers 1960

The Catholic Church in Ireland looks like it’s in trouble. It’s still reeling from the clerical abuse scandals that have shaken its foundations over the better part of two decades, and it’s struggling to cope with the challenges of the island’s extraordinarily rapid secularization. A new book by Fr Gerry O’Hanlon, The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis: A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? (Messenger Publications, 2018), argues that there is hope that the Catholic Church can reform itself. When Francis became pope …

Humanity in the midst of Brutality: Review of Martin Magill’s ‘The Poor Clares in Belfast, 1924-2012’

Gladys Ganiel on August 1, 2018, 11:37 am | Readers 950

In 2012, the Poor Clares closed their monastery in North Belfast after 88 years in the city. As an enclosed order, it might have been expected that the nuns would have had little impact on the world outside their walls. Fr Martin Magill’s new book, The Poor Clares in Belfast, 1924-2012 (Shanway Press), tells a different story. The Poor Clares in Belfast explores how the nuns’ ministry of prayer, presence and listening endeared them to the local people. They were …

Whatever Happened to the Good Friday Agreement? Review of Siobhán Fenton’s New Book

Gladys Ganiel on July 27, 2018, 2:22 pm | Readers 3060

Siobhán Fenton’s somewhat misleadingly-titled new book, The Good Friday Agreement makes for sobering reading. The aim of the book is to take stock of how far Northern Ireland has come since the 1998 Agreement, making it less about the Agreement itself than it is about the failure to implement it. Indeed, several times throughout, Fenton observes that it is not the Agreement that has failed. Rather it is Northern Ireland’s politicians who have ‘failed the Agreement.’ The Good Friday Agreement …

Inventing the Myth on the Eleventh Night: Review of Connal Parr’s Book on Ulster Protestantism

Gladys Ganiel on July 11, 2018, 11:25 am | Readers 3410

“What is distinctive of political Protestantism – its Orange marches, its flute bands, its lodge banners, its sectarian songs – is taken to be the sum of all cultural life in that community.” – Prof Arthur Aughey, quoted in Connal Parr, p. 15, Inventing the Myth We are on the eve of the Twelfth – usually considered the height of Ulster Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist cultural expression. But Aughey’s words should give us pause for thought. Aughey is quoted in Connal Parr’s widely …