Position Papers

26/05/2026

Fr. Walter Macken

I lost a friend of more than six decades last week - although lost is the wrong word, for he has gone to a far less troubled world. He was also more than a friend - he was a guide, confidant and often even a confessor. His name was Fr. Walter Macken, son of the well-known Irish novelist and playwright, Walter Macken, whose hugely popular historical fiction were international bestsellers in the second half of the twentieth century and are still in print today....

I lost a friend of more than six decades last week – although lost is the wrong word, for he has gone to a far less troubled world. He was also more than a friend – he was a guide, conf…

01/05/2026

The Other Steubenville

The New Yorker is a world famous magazine, not least famous for the very quirky sense of humour of its very prolific team of cartoonists. But it is also famous for its long, very long, essays and articles. What it is not famous for is positive and sympathetic articles, long or otherwise about things Catholic. I’m not alleging it is anti-Catholic....

The New Yorker is a world famous magazine, not least famous for the very quirky sense of humour of its very prolific team of cartoonists. But it is also famous for its long, very long, essays and a…

16/04/2026

Terrence Malick’s Spiritual Legacy

“There are two ways through life—the way of nature and the way of grace”. In Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, one of the protagonists offers us this reflection.In a way, all of Terrence Malick’s films are a reflection on this truth, each one of them an essay on one or other way—or both. We now await the release of what may well be his last film, a work on which we have little detailed information....

“There are two ways through life—the way of nature and the way of grace”. In Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, one of the protagonists offers us this reflection.In a way, all of Terrence Mal…

06/03/2026

The folly of destroying an inheritance

In the February issue of the Irish-based magazine, Position Papers, a review of Vandalising Ireland by historian and writer Eoin Lenihan was published. It was a kind of ‘call to arms’ in defence of an authentic Irish identity and nationhood. We might wish him luck. As the reviewer, Dr Tim O’Sullivan, implied, the sometimes sneering reception of the book in the mainstream media spoke volumes about the kind of culture-war vandalism Lenihan was calling out....

In the February issue of the Irish-based magazine,  Position Papers, a review of Vandalising Ireland by historian and writer Eoin Lenihan was published. It was a kind of ‘call to arms’ in defe…

30/01/2026

https://garvan.co/2026/01/30/stranger-things-and-the-new-jerusalem/

The end times have come. No, not the Apocalypse. Just a popular culture phenomenon – Stranger Things. This is Netflix’s incredibly successful science fiction magnum opus. Scien…

30/01/2026

‘Stranger Things’ and the New Jerusalem

The end times have come. No, not the Apocalypse. Just a popular culture phenomenon - Stranger Things. This is Netflix’s incredibly successful science fiction magnum opus. Science fiction, however, is only a fraction of the narrative genre that it represents. It certainly touches on the apocalyptic genre and like the Apocalypse its central theme is the struggle between good and evil....

The end times have come. No, not the Apocalypse. Just a popular culture phenomenon – Stranger Things. This is Netflix’s incredibly successful science fiction magnum opus. Scien…

31/12/2025

We need to talk

The School of Athens Socrates died for it. Charlie Kirk died doing it. They both died because some people, powerful or not, hated them for what they said and did. Socrates died from a dose of hemlock his enemies obliged him to swallow; Kirk died from a bullet in the neck. Essentially what these two men had in common, and for which they were hated by their political enemies, was the dangerous habit of trying to dialogue and converse with those who opposed them....

The School of Athens Socrates died for it. Charlie Kirk died doing it. They both died because some people, powerful or not, hated them for what they said and did. Socrates died from a dose of hemlo…

27/10/2025

This post will appear shortly in the print edition of Position Papers

Technology, well-being and our future world.

It is difficult to pick up a serious newspaper or magazine, or tune in to a serious podcast today, without finding another essay where someone is worrying about modern technology’s dire impact on our mental health, our political life and our literacy.

Thomas Edsall mused at length in The New York Times (October 14) on ‘The rise of the Smartphone and the Fall of Western Democracy’. He drew on the research and arguments of, among others, Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge.

It is difficult to pick up a serious newspaper or magazine, or tune in to a serious podcast today, without finding another essay where someone is worrying about modern technology’s dire impact on o…

27/10/2025

It is difficult to pick up a serious newspaper or magazine, or tune in to a serious podcast today, without finding another essay where someone is worrying about modern technology’s dire impact on our mental health, our political life and our literacy. Thomas Edsall mused at length in The New York Times (October 14) on ‘The rise of the Smartphone and the Fall of Western Democracy’....

It is difficult to pick up a serious newspaper or magazine, or tune in to a serious podcast today, without finding another essay where someone is worrying about modern technology’s dire impact on o…

15/10/2025

https://thecatholicherald.com/catholics-set-to-exceed-anglicans-among-churchgoers-for-first-time-since-reformation/