Rita Süssmuth died in Neuss yesterday. She was born in Wuppertal in 1937.
She held many ministerial positions in German CDU governments. Rita Süssmuth was a great woman, spent her life advising and recommending people not to be afraid to swim against the tide.
She was 10 years president of the Bundestag (ceann comhairle of the Dáil) She was a strong advocate for a united Europe, for democracy and was active in returning Nazi loot to its legitimate owners.
The piece below appeared in The Irish Times on Saturday. Why upper case ‘editor’? It is written by the newspaper’s editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.
Interesting to know if the editorial staff spotted the grammatical error mentioned on this blog on Saturday’s post.
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
It’s the way we say it: a note from the Editor
Why does The Irish Times insist on saying the first World War, that firstbeing lower case? Why do we refer to Muammar Gadafy, not Qaddafi, or the Belfast (not Good Friday) Agreement? Why do we write Dart, Cab and Nato but also RTÉ, EU and BBC?
There is a long answer to each of these questions, but the short answer is: because The Irish Times Stylebook says we must.
At any point in the day, hundreds of stories are moving through our publishing systems, covering a wide range of topics, each one written on deadline by a different author.
Our stylebook – an in-house bible that codifies our style, spelling and grammar conventions – is what we use to ensure clarity and consistency, especially where there is no one correct way of expressing something.
Some entries are long and detailed. Others, such as the rules on exclamation marks (“Don’t use”) or going forward (“Please don’t”) are to the point. A few, as our readers enjoy telling us, are decidedly eccentric.
The stylebook is regularly updated to take account of the news agenda; a style note was circulated this week telling us how to abbreviate US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice, not ICE).
Settling on language for other changes can take months of work led by our Editing & Publishing team – the eagle-eyed copy-editors who correct our mistakes and finesse our prose.
It’s a living document, reflecting changes in how people communicate.
From tomorrow morning, a series of changes to the stylebook will take effect. The most significant is the elimination of honorifics in our news sections.
The Irish Times stopped using Mr, Ms, Mrs and other courtesy titles in most sections, including arts, features, obituaries and sport, decades ago. We would never say “Mr Kelleher launched the ball towards Mr Scales, who headed it down for Mr Parrott to score.”
Honorifics never appear in opinion columns or editorials. Only in rare instances do journalists, authors, entertainers or sportspeople take theirs. The more exceptions we made, the more confusing it became for our readers.
From tomorrow, honorifics will appear only in quoted speech, sketches or titles of books, plays, films and songs. Mrs Dalloway and Fantastic Mr Fox will still get through the editing process.
The new guidance, which runs to 1,500 words, suggests workarounds for cases where multiple people have the same surname; where professional titles are relevant to the story; or where the subject matter is particularly sensitive.
The change has been debated on and off for years. Honorifics were used as a marker of civility, or to show respect for people notable enough to make news. Today, we concluded, they sound like a vestige of a more formal past and no longer reflect how people speak or write. Their repetition – Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof, Sgt and so on – interrupts the flow of a story. Most news publishers go without.
From tomorrow, so will we. Just don’t mention the (first World) War.
Eighty three years ago today the
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| Marshal Georgy Zhukov |
The previous autumn Hitler sent German troops to take Stalingrad. It was expected that the city on the Volga would be captured in two weeks.
German General Friedrich Paulus was in charge of the Sixth Army.
The Red Army under the command of Marshal General George Zhukov outgunned the Germans.
Stalingrad was the first major battle in which the Germans were beaten.
Hitler made Paulus a field marshal hoping he would take his life rather than surrender; Paulus was the first German field marshal to suffer defeat. He later went on to advise the NVA, the National People’s Army of the German Democratic Republic.
After Stalingrad the Red Army raced to Berlin, en route they tore open the gates at German death camp, Auschwitz occupied Poland.
In the Berlin suburb of Karls Horst on May 8, 1945 Field Marshal Zhukov accepted the surrender on behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the final instrument of unconditional surrender on behalf of Germany.
Zhukov went on to take up many high positions in the Soviet Union but Stalin was always nervous of him, afraid of his popularity; he was jealous of the great man. He was defence minister between 1955 and 1957 in the Khruschev era.
He died in Moscow on June 18, 1974 at the age of 77.
Maybe if the West had better appreciated what the Soviet Union did in World War II, they lost 27 million people, the Russian Bear might be showing a different aspect to its character.
The current slaughter taking place in Ukraine is a shame on the world and sullying the name of the men on the Volga in 1942/’43.
Trump’s dealings with Putin are scandalous; Trump the draft dodger and billionaire and Putin the dictator and billionaire.
Do the troops on the front know the wealth of Putin and Trump? Of course they don’t.
How Lidl celebrates the feast of
Every weekday from 05.30 to 05.59 BBC Radio 4 airs a programme on farming. In recent days they have been highlighting the damage that processed food is causing us and how there is not a whimper about it.
US President Donald Trump is not known for his expertise in the English language but in recent days he even outdid himself.
Blathering on about himself, telling lies and talking nonsense he said somewhere in the middle of his verbiage; something was ‘very very unique’.
The adjective unique cannot be modified in the same way pregnant can’t be modified.
And then in the digital version of The Irish Times today this appears:
"A barge that had being moored in Graiguenamanagh has broken free from it moorings, Sarah Slater reports."
Below is a link to stirring words spoken by American Dominican priest Brendan Curran concerning the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE.
This surely is genuine and real Dominican ministry:
https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/chicago-vigil-for-alex-pretti/672355
Fr Curran is Dominican regional promoter of justice and peace for North America.
He is a member of the Dominican Province of St Albert the Great, in the USA.
Brendan was born in 1970, studied political science at Providence College, Rhode Island before entering the Dominican Order.
Along with promoting justice and peace, he is the special assistant to the president of the Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois.
On RTÉ’s News at Six last evening environment correspondent George Lee in the wake of Storm Chandra made strong criticisms against Wexford County Council for not playing a more active role in protecting properties.
He went on to explain that the council had ample information beforehand, which had it been made public before the flooding, could easily have ameliorated the damage that the storm caused. They were surprisingly strong criticisms for an RTÉ journalist to express.
On the same programme a Wexford County Council engineer was interviewed; her performance would not have given much hope or confidence to those whose properties have been inundated, or indeed, to those whose properties are at risk of being flooded over the next 48 hours.
This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane
Two weeks ago I wrote about a Luas passenger who had no ticket and abused the checker who behaved in an inspiring manner.
Would you believe it, on Monday morning the same checker but a different passenger without a ticket. This time the passenger behaved correctly and graciously accepted her penalty.
I changed jobs in November; it means a 90-minute journey with public transport every morning plus two short cycle rides.
I’ve a 20-minute wait, where tram links with rail, and over the weeks I’ve got friendly with a bus driver. He is at his terminus where he has a five- minute wait. In early December I started chatting with him asking him childlike questions about the type of bus he drives and what is his favourite, what does he think of the new electric and hybrid vehicles.
Our conversations have moved on from buses, though even on Monday he did tell me his favourite bus to drive is the old AX series, which is one of the buses he is driving this week. They are in service for over 18 years.
As I approached his bus one morning I was planning to ask him what he would do if he won the Lotto but I decided not to ask, instead I asked him if he liked his job. Without a moment’s hesitation he said: ‘I love my job’.
It was a wet miserable dark morning when I asked him that question and those four words cheered me up. Isn’t it a wonderful experience to meet someone who genuinely loves their job.
And I could see from how he greets his passengers how deadly serious he was with his answer.
I’m forever asking what’s it all about, what’s the purpose of our lives? When I hear people say; thank God it’s Friday or counting down the weeks to holidays I’m forever asking is it a matter of wishing away our lives. Surely there has to be more than lurching from one distraction to the next.
Karl Marx said that in a capitalist system workers are forced to work to survive. He’s saying something but it’s more complicated and nuanced than that.
Are we not sufficiently enlightened to see to it that no matter what the job is we can get satisfaction from it?
The majority of people want to do a day’s work and make it meaningful for them. They want to be told they have done a good job; affirmation goes a long way in getting people out of their armchairs.
How often do we praise people for the work they do? When last did you compliment a street sweeper for keeping our roads and paths clean?
I’ve never been happy how the churches have hijacked the word vocation. As a Christian I believe we have all been called by God on our life journey.
I’m tired of all the pious words attributed to God. Maybe the god many have abandoned had nothing to do with God.
English poet Philip Larkin, who was an agnostic, asks: ‘And what remains when disbelief has gone?’ Maybe the time of disbelief is running out and it’s time to remember God.
I’ve no doubt my bus driver friend has God’s favour.
Today is International Holocaust Day, the day the world remembers the atrocities of the Germans in the Hitler years.
It was on this day in 1945 that the Soviet 322nd Rifle Division threw open the gates at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. The Soviet Army was racing to Berlin.
And on the same date the previous year the 872-day Leningrad siege was lifted, a significant day in World War II in defeating the marauding Germans.
The text below is a comment on the post on this blog of Friday, January 23. It is anonymous. It may not be intentional of the writer to remain anonymous, in which case, please contact this blog so that your name can be published. The text also appears as a comment under the relevant post.
It’s published here because it may be missed by some readers. It’s worth a read. And to the writer, thank you.
"Observing commuters rushing to and from work on a daily basis one is tempted to ask where do priests, sisters and brothers encounter people in their daily lives.
"Mixing and engaging with people exclusively when talking about God and the Gospels can be a rarified experience.
"When one thinks about it when exactly are priests engaged with the public? Do they meet them in the workplace as equals, do they travel with them on crowded trams, trains and buses, do they meet them cycling on cycle lanes."
Your words eloquently sum up my life since I first signed in, in January 1972, as a Male Night Telephonist (MNT). Remember, in the Posts and Telecommunications (P&T) telephone exchanges then, men worked the night shifts and women the days. I was beginning my requested leave of absence from the Order modelling the "failed" worker priest lifestyle so to speak. After two years I received a positive response to my requested laicisation and departed for Canada, where I have lived and worked in three provinces over fifty years in a variety of jobs; the longest being for twenty-five of those years as a workplace counsellor for injured and marginalised workers.
There are wonderful rewards for "being reduced to the lay state" i.e. laicisation! You have blessed me, and many more, by your reflective commentary. Thank you.
January 25, 2026
In the midst of pending great darkness a man appears on stage, the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney.
https://youtu.be/btqHDhO4h10?si=_0yZurmfld-nkjWz
This is his speech at Davos. And an Irishman to boot.
There is another person on the world stage, who is also worth listening to; Pope Leo XIV.
Below is the full speech given by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at Davos.
The world might well be fortunate today to have Carney and Merz. Merz reminds us of what raw power inflicted on his homeland.
https://youtu.be/7HplCqi2JY8?si=iYAGTN9bK9qJPT-_
The Irish Times offers an
The Irish Times regularly writes about the environment and it’s clear to see the newspaper is on the side of the environment and with those who are environmentally friendly.
On Friday the newspaper placed a complimentary chocolate in everyone’s pouch.
Just look at the size of the chocolate and the bag it is in and on top of that, chocolate; none of it environmentally friendly.
When it comes to advertising, money, branding, who really ever cares or thinks about the environment?
Of course it is a paid for advert by Lindt but could The Irish Times not have done a better deal with Lindt before that waste of paper? But written on the tin is: ‘A Gift from The Irish Times'.
The letter below appeared in The Irish Times yesterday. Similarities with yesterday’s post on this blog.
Sir, – Before commuters rejoice at hearing that affordable housing is only 2½ hours away in Newry, I think every sitting Minister should be encouraged to make use of existing public transport infrastructure so they have critical hands-on experience (“Newry is evolving into a commuter hub for Dublin. The strain is already showing,” January 18th).
I’d like to see a Minister sweating on an overheated, overcrowded Dart at 8.15am while it has to mysteriously stop for 10 minutes at Grand Canal station. Add a buggy with a fractious toddler who is heading to the only childcare they could find with places for additional points. Extra points also if it’s lashing rain, or the train is delayed because of leaves on the track.
On the way home, the Minister can only leave the office at 5pm but must collect the kids from the creche, minimum 13km away from the office, by 5.45pm. Extra points if the creche is in excess of 15km away from work.
I’d like to see a Minister attempt to get to a 9am meeting or lecture on time by taking two buses to cross the city – they can choose whether they’d prefer to start in Blackrock and get to DCU, or start in Phibsboro to get to Belfield.
Points deducted for being late. Extra points if they have to wait more than 10 minutes for the connecting bus but still make it on time.
After this, we can see how they can live in Clare but commute to work in Cork, or Athlone while living in Leitrim. More challenges can be submitted by commuters across the country. Diary of a Minister on public transport could be the next Irish Times sensation. Give the people what they want. Then we’ll all move to Newry. – Yours, etc,
ALISON TREACY,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Part of the mission of the Dominican Order was/is in mixing with people, who will see by their lives and work that there is something wonderful in the story of the Gospels.
Observing commuters rushing to and from work on a daily basis one is tempted to ask where do priests, sisters and brothers encounter people in their daily lives.
Mixing and engaging with people exclusively when talking about God and the Gospels can be a rarified experience.
When one thinks about it when exactly are priests engaged with the public? Do they meet them in the workplace as equals, do they travel with them on crowded trams, trains and buses, do they meet them cycling on cycle lanes.
Religious sisters are at the vanguard of being in the workplace, sharing the ups and downs of the people.
The idea of the working priest in France was potentially a possible way forward. Why did it fail? Then again, why is priesthood as we know it today failing in the western world? Yes, it is still in some aspects attracting ‘the converted’, it also is attracting zealots. Does priesthood today speak in any real way to the commuter class of society?
In Davos German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said a world in which only power counts was a dangerous place – first for small states, then for the middle powers and ultimately for the great ones.
The Union of Catholic Asian News reports on an Indian religious sister’s stand against abuse and institutional power.
Below is the link to the article in the current edition of UCA.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/an-indian-nuns-stand-against-abuse-and-institutional-power/111651
This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane
’You never know with cyclists what they are going to do or anticipate what they are going to do.’
Words spoken by Circuit Court judge James O’Donohoe at a sitting where he reduced by 80 per cent the damages awarded to a cyclist, who was involved in an accident with a motorbike and suffered brain injury. The injured cyclist ended up with €10,000 compensation. The cyclist had no lights on his bicycle nor was he wearing a hi-vis jacket.
The judge’s words have caused an outcry across the country; the cycling community crying foul and the hauliers saying the judge was spot on.
The judge had no sooner opened his mouth when the media discovered the same judge was fined €600 for not providing a breath sample back in 2012. Judge O’Donohoe has made many unusual comments, putting it mildly. In 2024 he was accused of using inappropriate and derogatory language.
Counsellor Karl Stanley of the Dublin Cycling Campaign appeared on RTÉ News on Tuesday evening criticising the judge but I did notice on the clip that RTÉ showed, Mr Stanley was not wearing a helmet, while cycling. Cyclists are not legally obliged to wear a helmet but surely it’s wise and safe to wear one.
On that same news deputy vice president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Eugene Drennan agreed with what the judge had to say. Mr Drennan said that cycling lanes had empowered cyclists to feel entitled.
The comments/behaviour of the judge, the cycling campaigner and the road haulage deputy vice president have left me in a state of bewilderment, indeed, shock.
Judge O’Donohoe’s comment are pure nonsensical, Mark Stanley’s words are fine but his not wearing a helmet leave me speechless and Eugene Drennan’s words were almost non-words; a style of gobbledegook.
I’m cycling 71 years and I know first hand how dangerous it is to manoeuvre a two-wheeler the length and breath of Ireland.
Of course some cyclists behave appallingly as do some car and truck drivers, and the behaviour of all three is getting worse by the day, indeed, more dangerously by the night.
I’ve experienced chaotic and absurd design failures on a number of cycle paths but I’ve also seen cyclists behave extremely badly. Every day I see cars driving through red lights and I’ve seen trucks and vans travelling at dangerous speeds.
It’s close to jungle territory out there, it really is.
Obviously there is not adequate policing but there is something more than that happening. Is it that we are getting to a stage where each one of us actually thinks and believes we can do what we like, we know best?
And that sort of arrogance has spewed out on to our roads? I wonder when did the judge or the haulage deputy vice president last cycle across the city and for the life of me I can’t understand what Karl Stanley is doing cycling without a helmet.
The government is talking about making the wearing of helmets mandatory for those on e-scooters. What about electric bicycles? Why not make helmet-wearing mandatory for all cyclists?
It’s all one big mess and all the current hullabaloo is pure proof that people are talking out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.
What’s new?
Three US cardinals call for the United States to have a genuine moral foreign policy.
Below is from Vatican News.
Three US cardinalsThree US Cardinals released a rare joint statement on Monday regarding American foreign policy, picking up several themes from Pope Leo XIV’s Address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
The statement was signed by Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark. (Read the original statement here)
“In 2026, the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” they wrote.
The Cardinals said recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland raise “basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.”
They highlighted the sovereign right of nations to self-determination, saying this principle appears increasingly fragile in the current conflictual geopolitics.
Efforts for just and sustainable peace have been subjected to partisanship, polarization, and destructive policies, despite peace being crucial to humanity’s well-being, said the three Cardinals.
“Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,” they noted.
Given this situation, the cardinals said Pope Leo’s “State of the World” address on January 9 offers a “truly moral foundation” for international relations and a pathway for American foreign policy.
In his speech to diplomats, the Pope lamented the weakness of multilateralism and the failure of diplomacy to seek dialogue and consensus among opposing sides.
“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” said Pope Leo. “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined. Peace is no longer sought as a gift and desirable good in itself… Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion.”
Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin recalled the Pope’s reference to Catholic teaching, which he said must protect the right to life since that right serves as the “indispensable foundation for every other human right.”
With him, they called for wealthy nations to provide humanitarian aid in order to safeguard human dignity of those who suffer, and lamented the rise in violation of conscience and religious freedom in the name of ideological or religious purity.
The American cardinals therefore called for a “genuinely moral foreign policy for our nation,” expressing their desire to build “a truly just and lasting peace,” which Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel.
“We renounce war as an instrument for narrow national interests and proclaim that military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy,” they said. “We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance.”
In conclusion, the three cardinals said Pope Leo has offered the United States a prism through which to overcome the “polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests” that currently inhibit the country’s debate on its own moral foundation.
On the front page of The Irish Times on Saturday there was a large picture of Ryan Tubridy with a story; in the Weekend section four pages were given over to the former RTÉ host.
Is it of public interest whether or not Mr Tubridy is attending a therapist and that it is helping him?
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| Lidl’s holey bread |
