On Dec. 3, 1154, the day after the death of Pope Anastasius IV, the freshly gathered conclave of cardinals unanimously elected the Bishop of Albano as Anastasius' successor. The bishop of this Italian see, 25 miles southwest of Rome, was not Italian, though. His name was Nicholas Breakspear. The new…

Shalom Ireland," director Valerie Lapin Ganley's documentary about Ireland's small but vibrant Jewish community, manages to convey a huge amount of information about the past, present, and future of Ireland's Jewry, a community whose existence takes many by surprise. The film, showing in festivals around the U.S. in the coming months, creates a memorable, lyrical…

By Christine Kinealy   

Being on the twelfth day of July, eighteen and forty-nine,

The pagans of this country did together combine, 

To…

By Christine Kinealy (First produced in 2003)

By 1849, the nationalist threat had passed, but the Orange…

By Joseph Gannon

Many men become known as heroes for their bravery in battle, for their willingness to face death in an effort to kill the enemy and obtain an objective, or for helping win the war for their country.

They are often celebrated by millions of their countrymen and…

First responders carry Fr. Mychal Judge's body from the rubble of the World Trade Center…