14th May 2008

1.  Social Justice
As the former Minister for Finance Brian Cowen steps in as our new Taoiseach, Sean Healy of CORI justice looks at what needs to be done to make Ireland a fair and progressive society. Miriam Gormally first asked him what were the most important economic issues which need to be looked at for 2008.

2. Mary & Ecumenism  
May is the month which we traditionally associate with devotion to Mary, Mother of God - with memories of May processions and visits to Marian Shrines.  But is devotion to Mary common to all Christian beliefs and could this devotion be a barrier to Ecumenical dialogue? Eileen Good put this question to Carmelite Fr. Chris O’Donnell.

3.  Feast of the Sacred Heart
For most people the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the Novena to the Sacred Heart belong in the month of June  - however not so this year.  This year, the Novena starts on Thursday May 22nd and the Feast day is celebrated on Friday May 30th.  Eileen Good asked Fr. Barney McGuckian why it is all so early this year.

4.  Choosing Wedding Music 
The choice of music for a wedding ceremony can be a topic of endless discussion  -  a soloist, a choir, a group, instrumentalist  .... what should it be?  Composer and performer Liam Lawton has recorded a CD of suitable wedding music ‘A Day of Our Own’ and Eileen Good asked him for his views on the topic.

5.  Bealtaine Festival
May is a time for new growth and new beginnings. It’s also a time for Bealtaine one of the largest festivals in Ireland, Bealtaine is run by Age and Opportunity in order to celebrate creativity in older age. Events will be taking place all over the country and Miriam Gormally met Dominic Campbell (Artistic Director of Bealtaine) and Valerie Owens who is part of the dance group Palimpsest to find out more. She began by asking Dominic to what Bealtaine is all about.

6.  The Meaning of Church
What is the meaning of Church? For most people it brings up strong feelings, both positive and negative. Eugene Duffy, author, theologian and lecturer at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick was recently leading a seminar at Manresa, the Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Dublin on this topic. Pat Coyle met him there and asked him what came up during the discussion on Church and Meaning. 

7.  Vincent De Paul
The Vincent De Paul won this year’s award from Reality magazine for best Church organisation of the year. Mairead Bushnell, the National President collected the award and she spoke to Miriam Gormally about the on honour of receiving the award as well as looking at the on-going needs of Irish Society.

8.   The Golden Compass
This week Peter O’Connor reviews The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.  The film has aroused much controversy on the grounds that it denigrates church and religion.  Let’s hear his views.

9.   Music:  Bring Flowers of the Rarest
This week’s music piece comes from James Kilbane.  The song is Bring Flowers of the Rarest and it is taken from his latest CD Heart to Heart.

28th May 2008 

 1.  Being a Priest
Headlines about the falling number of vocations, dissatisfaction among clergy, debates about celibacy all give a very negative picture of clergy today.  But what is the reality?  How difficult is it to be a priest in modern Ireland?  Miriam Gormally met Fr. Liam Power from the diocese of Waterford and Lismore and asked him first if he liked being a priest.

2.   Apostleship of Prayer  
Many people are familiar with the ‘Morning Offering’ prayer – but how many realise that in saying the Morning Offering they are part of the Apostleship of Prayer.  The Apostleship of Prayer asks us to pray in the most profound way possible, to offer ourselves and the entire day as a prayer that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. Eileen Good met Fr. Claudio Barriga of the Apostleship of Prayer on a recent visit to Ireland, and he explained why it is such an important Apostleship.

3.  Edmund Rice Schools Trust
By September of this year the Christian Brothers will have handed over control of 96 schools to a charitable trust run by lay people.  This will end the day to day involvement of the Brothers in the running of their schools, a tradition going back over two centuries. Eileen Good asked Brother Donal Blake why they had made this decision.

4.  Volunteering in Colombia 
This year for the second year in a row, Jeanann Cox is participating in a short term volunteering scheme and heading off to Bogotá, in Colombia.  She will spend July dividing her time working in an orphanage for both abled and disabled children and a school for street children.  The trip also involves teaching English to locals in the community.  Miriam Gormally began by asking Jeanann why she is going back to Bogotá?

For more on Slí Eile see www.sli-eile.com

For more information on Volunteering in Ireland see www.volunteer.ie

5.  Meeting God
Meeting God is a prayer book drawing on the Carmelite spiritual tradition, published in the year in which the Carmelite Order celebrates the eight hundredth centenary of the rule which goes back to St. Albert of Jerusalem in about 1207.. As well as having reflections, prayers and poetry it is a book which encourages people to pray anywhere, anytime – as Carmelite Fr. Chris O’Donnell explained to Eileen Good.
  

6.  Remembering John Moriarty
John Moriarty died at his home near the Horses’s Glen at the foot of Mangerton mountain Killarney, on June 1st 2007. A prolific author, he was born in Kerry in 1938 and following his education in Kerry and UCD – where he was a student of Cardinal Desmond Connells’  - he taught in the University of Manitoba in Canada. To mark the first anniversary of his death, author and radio producer Aidan Matthews spoke to Eileen Good about his memories of John Moriarty.

(BACK CREDIT:  That programme remembering John Moriarty ‘The Passion of John’ will be broadcast on RTE Radio One on June 1st. at 9.10 p.m.)

7.  Adult Faith Development 2
Holy Faith Sister Siobhan Larkin, is Head of the School of Adult and Continuing Education and Director of the H.Dip in Adult R.E. at the Milltown Institute in Dublin. Having travelled around the country recently to meet Faith Development Groups she is convinced that parishes need to provide the same resources for Adult Faith Development as has been put into school-based education of the young people in the past.  Eileen Good asked her why many adults are so hesitant about returning to education.

8.   Young Social Innovators
Recently young people from all over the country were honoured for their contributions to society though the Young Social Innovators projects. It is an opportunity for people to take on projects wherever they feel there is a need. Miriam Gormally met two students Julie Dubsky and Karen Milne from Newtown school in Waterford who helped street children in Calcutta through the Hope Foundation.  Julie began by telling Miriam how it all started.

To learn more about The Young Social Innovators see www.youngsocialinnovators.ie
For more information on t eh Hope Foundation see www.hopefoundation.ie

9.   Music:  A Street Child in Calcutta
This week our music piece is something a little bit different. Julie Dubsky, who was honored by the Young Social Innovators earlier this year, wrote a song about a boy she came accross on the Streets of Calcutta.