A talk on the life and times of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was presented by Morgan Sharpe in the Central Catholic Library on Thursday 22nd May @ 7.30 p.m.
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Raphael’s World
A talk by Fr. Michael Collins
was presented on Zoom on Thursday 17th June 2021
Fr. Collins’ book with the same title is now available in the Library
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On Tuesday 26th April, priest and theologian Fr. Vincent Twomey SVD delivered an excellent, well-attended talk entitled “The Mystery of the Church: One, Holy and Catholic”.
Available on Catholic World Report.
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Patrick gave an update on his project to digitise the “Irish Catholic Directory”. The “Irish Catholic Directory” was first published in the mid 1830s, a few years after Catholic Emancipation.
When completed this project will assist parishes, researchers and a multitude of interested groups to research clerical profiles in parishes, ordinations, ornamental sculptors, stained glass manufacturers, church furnishers.
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Notre Dame research students, Matthew Lad and Jonathan Karr, presented a paper “Equivocation and Erosion: How LLMs Undermine Catholic Religious Discourse” on Thursday 6th November @ 6.00 p.m. in the Library. This research had previously been presented at a conference in England.
Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) offer opportunities for information dissemination,
yet present challenges with upholding the distinct theological practices of the Catholic faith.
By training on vast datasets, LLMs can generate responses that equivocate or blend together diverse perspectives.
While this tendency can be beneficial for providing broad access to information, it can dilute the distinct theological tenets foundational to Catholicism.
While these challenges may affect various faiths, we conduct a case study to investigate them within the Catholic tradition.
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Dr. Fearghas Ó Béara, Head of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Ireland, shared his reflections on his recent travels in Turkmenistan.
The talk, entitled A hermit kingdom on the Silk Road: Impressions of a visit to Turkmenistan took place Thursday 27th November 2025 @ 1.05 p.m.
The Powerpoint presentation is available on request.
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On Wednesday 8th October, Poet in Residence and volunteer librarian, Brid Fitzpatrick, delighted us by reading selections from her published books of poetry. There followed a very lively and engaged discussion on the nature and writing of poetry.
Many thanks to Bríd!
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Our most successful ever Christmas Carols event was held in the Library on Saturday 3rd January 2026.
Children from the Piccolo Lasso Singers, under the baton of Dr. Ite O’Donovan, led those present in the singing a selection of popular Christmas Carols.
Many thanks to Ite, the children and their parents for bringing such musical joy to our Library Christmas celebrations.