Last year the dramatic flood of refugees heading for Europe across the sea was a daily feature in the news. Tragic stories of those who drowned were making headlines. Reports on refugees holed up in migration centres or facing closed borders were shown on TV so often that they seemed to have become a permanent fixture in the regular schedule.…

Last Wednesday night I was watching ‘Reporting Scotland’ on the BBC. Among many stories there was one about lowering the sugar content in the iconic Scottish fizzy drink ‘Irn-Bru’. A reporter asked a few people in the street for their opinions on the decision. My attention was drawn to a middle-aged woman whose forehead had been marked with a darkened…

Britain’s youngest ‘Euromillions’ winner was planning to sue the parent company of Lotto for ‘ruining her life’. How was the operator alleged to have done so? By paying out a million pounds to her as the holder of a winning ticket. She had bought the ticket of her own free will, and she had accepted the money. Eventually she dropped…

The Presidency of Mr Trump is like a gift that keeps on giving – in reverse. His controversial blanket ban on travel over a week ago pleased his supporters enormously – and brought misery to many individuals, whose rights were struck off by a stroke of the Presidential pen. For me, the decision resembled that of the infamous Nuremberg Laws,…

It will be the second anniversary of my grandmother’s death in a couple of weeks’ time. I remember vividly that shortly before her Requiem Mass was due to commence, I was instructed to preach at it. I hate being put under pressure to have to craft a homily at the very last-minute, because it indicates either laziness on the part…