Inspirational speech from a highly intelligent and perceptive scholar. we need more people like this. God Bless.

Whether you agree with him or not, this is a very relevant conversation. A lot of people knocking Catholicism still want the perks...

8 years later and more relevant than ever

Watching this in 2020, excellent viewing.

Thanks John for your Insight on matters of concerns to Ireland .. Greater Many Christians who know the Word of God in Holy Bible truth have faith and trust in Jesus Christ our Saviour

Great talk John, St Patrick pray for us!

Good on ya John. Always enjoyed Your pieces when wrote for the WRag. I worked in your hometown for 6 Mth,s in 95,96. It was like going back in time 10 or 20 years in our beautiful Homeland.

Excellent presentation. Great insights, and much food for thought!

That was wonderful.

Spot on, and because so, heart-chilling.

Good talk. What is interesting is the reactions of the audience. They start off jittery and gradually get more comfortable with John's talk. John has touched on a deep seated concept here about attitudes and our cultural view of the dignity of man. Not just how we view it but how we question it and assize it.

Eloquently put.

Excellent......And I so enjoyed Katie Taylor breaking out of the bunker during the Olympics...not a moralist but a faith prespective. Journalists really didn't know what to make of it

10 years on and Ireland is in a far darker place.

I think what has happened is people have thrown out the baby with the bathwater I also think when that great poet said the word extermination he didn't mean for himself I really think he was speaking almost as a seer and he was seeing that the world was needing to extermination because it did throw out the baby with the bathwater. We've gotta get the baby back😢

My girlfriend got pregnant and was going to abort the baby. I didn't want her to. Actually, I don't have a girlfriend. My girlfriend is my mother, and the baby is me. I wasn't aborted. God bless all.

"...The street and the wilderness..." - brilliant, there's so much in that!!! Thanks John - Blessings - Rene

We need to start fighting back...

Document discussed- w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2011/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110922_reichstag-berlin.html

Gosh, not surprised that this video got all the Irish people who aren't religious, and rather bitter, out of the woodwork. Amusing and sad, really.

You're right, journalists really didn't know what to make of it. Probably because she immediately dumped all of her hard work, passion and graft onto a deity. The following idea baffles me: god helped Katie Taylor win a gold for Ireland, but allowed countless of children die horrifically in Syria or starve to death in Somalia and India (to name but a few hot spots of horror). I respect (and would defend) your right to your beliefs but excuse me while I offer this insight from the other side.

There is no mystery. We are not special. We are animals. There is no spirit, no soul. That doesn't mean life has to be bleak, that there is no reason to be a good person.

The part where he talks about not hearing on the radio and television from the morning till night anything that "affirms your humanity to a level of origin that's mysterious to you" is truly obtuse, and really shows the lack of understanding he has of society. The fact that he feels that people NEED to hear their beliefs being affirmed on our national TV and radio stations (paid for by taxpayers) shows the feeble grip that religion has on society. All powerful God needs TV and Radio now John?

Wrong.

Excludes God John because he doesn't exist.