PA MagLochlainn’s funeral mass will be in Dungiven at 10am on Saturday. Belfast people can pay their respects in O’Kane’s funeral parlour from 3pm today. Suggestion is allow the family to be there first and gather after 4. The top bar in Union Street has been opened by Andre Graham to allow people to gather there. Continue reading paying our respects – PA MagLochlainn
This afternoon, I learned that a very dear friend, mentor and colleague, PA MagLochlainn has ‘gone home’. A few weeks ago I learned that he was in hospital and was very unwell, while we were celebrating 30 years of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland. Last week, the Pink Triangle Commemoration at Belfast City Hall was organised for the first year not by him. He was due to come, but this was not to be. And now, today, we are in mourning. He was many things to many people. His life touched all around him. Upon hearing the news … Continue reading PA MagLochlainn RIP
November is a month of remembrance, from the Christian celebrations of All Saints and All Souls on the first and second days of the month respectively, through the almost continual prayers for the Holy Souls at Mass during the … Continue reading can the LGBT community stop self-stigmatising and join the general remembrance please?
For nearly 90 years, The Poppy Factory in Richmond, Surrey, has been making poppies, crosses and wreaths for the Royal Family and the Royal British Legion’s annual Remembrance Day appeal. Since 2007, The Poppy Factory has also been placing wounded, … Continue reading Are you wearing a handmade poppy? Can you support the Poppy Factory?
Just as Evensong finished in St George’s there was a series of explosions outside. So much so that a large group of the congregation gathered in the Narthex to find out what was going on. It was no problem it was just the Hallowe’en Firework display starting from next to the Lagan. Today has been a liturgical nightmare for some of us. What day do we celebrate? According to the 1962 Calendar in the Roman Rite it is the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King (White or Gold hangings). In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it … Continue reading A liturgical nightmare and the holy motorists
Good to see that someone is remembering St Frideswide. Thinking of all my friends in the city and university of Oxford. Continue reading
Originally posted on Niles's Blog:
Yesterday we rang for a service at Daybrook St Pauls for the last time for a good few months. Our tower captain’s decades of fundraising have finally paid off and the bells are due a big renovation, including some tuning work, and a new frame, lower in the tower. They have been getting steadily worse over the few years I have been ringing them, and some, in particular the 5, have something seriously wrong with them. Yesterday afternoon, bellhangers were doing preparatory work and today, the bells will be lowered down the tower. Tonight… Continue reading
On 20 October hundreds of thousands of people will gather in central London to march for a future that works. [Here in Belfast there is a march as well.—Ed.] They’ll be taking to the streets because they believe that government … Continue reading March for a future that works (via Unison)
Just been speaking to Judith Cochrane MLA, one of three Alliance Party MLAs unable to bring themselves to be present in The Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday for the Marriage Equality vote. I asked her: “Can you tell me why you were absent from the chamber yesterday for the Equal Marriage vote?” Her response is below. I am sorry if you feel that I let you down yesterday. I have many friends in the LGBT community both in NI and further afield whom I care about deeply but who accept that I believe that marriage is between a man and a … Continue reading Judith Cochrane MLA’s answer on why she was absent from chamber for #equalmarriageni vote yesterday
Originally posted on Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland:
This afternoon Stephen Glenn, co-ordinator of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats Northern Ireland, sat in the gallery of the Assembly while our MLAs debated the motion from the Green Party and Sinn Féin about marriage equality. He was not alone as a large number of equal marriage campaigners were there in the hope that the DUP’s petition of concern would prove to be the only way this motion could be defeated. Sadly it was defeated by four votes even without it. Forty five of our MLAs did vote for it, one sole unionist voice,… Continue reading
Gyronny Herald 