Mary Kenny, Author at Catholic Herald

Mary Kenny

That sober Baptist Thomas Cook couldn’t have imagined today’s travellers

September 26, 2019

It took the collapse of the travel company Thomas Cook – with the many reports of British tourists stranded abroad, sometimes in dire straits – to prompt me to look up the origins of this hitherto legendary firm. The original founder was a Victorian Baptist minister who sought to bring travel to the masses, in an

My neighbour, ‘the dad who gave birth’

September 19, 2019

Earlier this month, BBC Two showed a documentary called Seahorse: The Dad who Gave Birth, which was made in Deal, Kent, where I dwell (the documentary is available via the internet). I am acquainted with Fred McConnell, “the dad who gave birth”, as a neighbour, and as a daughter of very nice folks locally. Seahorse

The Catholic conscience of a noir classic

September 12, 2019

It’s considered by some as the best film noir ever made – and it is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The Third Man, starring Orson Welles, was rendered especially compelling by Anton Karas’s mesmeric Harry Lime Theme, played on the zither. The movie, directed by Carol Reed, is a haunting thriller set in the

Once they were dens of iniquity. Now they’re community lifelines

September 05, 2019

One of the more amusing aspects of growing older is to observe the reversals of history and the shifting of concepts. How piquant to see Chinese protesters in Hong Kong and elsewhere singing God Save the Queen as an affirmation of freedom, rather than as a symbol of colonial rule. How sweet to see baking

Europe’s radiant royals are helping preserve family values

August 29, 2019

Royal history is often entwined with stories of scandals, illicit lovers, royal mistresses and infants born out of wedlock. (Charles II had 19 such progeny.) So royal misbehaviour is nothing new; nor is the choice of unwise companions. Yet it is surely edifying to note that among the European royals these days there seem to be

Funeral eulogies? Save it for the wake

August 22, 2019

A priest in County Cork has caused ripples by deploring the nature of some of the gifts brought to the altar during a funeral Mass. These, says Fr Tomás Walsh, have included beer, cigarettes, a football jersey, a television remote control and even a packet of detergent. He says this isn’t appropriate or respectful. He

A cabinet entirely of women? Nuns could handle it

August 15, 2019

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP, has attracted some ridicule for suggesting that there should be a cabinet composed entirely of women, the better to deal with Brexit. Anyone who was educated in a convent boarding school would see nothing whatsoever to ridicule in a governing body entirely composed of women. Some of those old-style

Brexit ire has replaced Catholic-bashing in Ireland

August 08, 2019

It has been well documented that Brexit has worsened relations between Britain and Ireland. There’s a tendency, among the more Brexity members of the Westminster government, and its supporters, to blame the pesky Irish – insisting on their “Backstop” – for holding up all proceedings. In Ireland, there’s been a new rash of Anglophobia, and

Men’s brains aren’t wired to notice housework

August 01, 2019

It’s considered now to be a major cause of inequality between men and women, and a prime factor in the “gender imbalance” of society. That is, the fact – recently confirmed by a study at University College London – that women do more housework than men. In mixed-sex households, women still do the majority of

I was wrong about golf

July 25, 2019

Shamefully, I had long been prejudiced against golf and golfers, and was amused when someone described the game as “a good walk spoiled”. Unfairly, I associated golf with suburban chaps who say things like “Name your poison, squire!” and refer to their spouses as “my lady wife”. This is clearly uncharitable and judgmental. For all I

The moon landings? We were more interested in Ted Kennedy

July 18, 2019

Fifty years on, the moon landing of July 1969 still seems an extraordinary feat: perhaps even more extraordinary in retrospect, as the accomplishments of science revealed the wonders of the universe. And yet, it is not very edifying to recall that this wasn’t the only topic of conversation among the scribes and Pharisees around that time.

The royal gossip we need

July 11, 2019

The christening of Archie, the infant son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, at Windsor Castle’s private chapel last weekend drew much speculation about the identity of the godparents, much comment on the ladies’ apparel – Kate was “wearing a pink Stella McCartney dress with Diana’s Collingwood pearl earrings” – and criticism, too, of

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