Are You Serious? Facing the Challenges Bobby McDonagh Like many others who attended Gonzaga College, one of my great privileges was to know and to be taught by Fr Joe Veale SJ. When I was invited to contribute to this edition of Studies, a publication for which Joe wrote several important articles half a century ago, I thought immediately of him. Until his death in 2002, Joe moved with the times; not long before he died, he encouraged me to see Bend it Like Beckham and strongly recommended The Full Monty as a Christian allegory. He would be delighted to know that Studies, in its 2019 summer issue, is exploring the challenges facing contemporary Ireland. Joe was unusual for his time. Even when teaching religion, he never sought to tell us what to think. Rather he encouraged us to think for ourselves and to articulateour thoughts. He hoped that we would stand up for what we believed. In an article in Studies in 19571 , Joe wrote that ‘it is difficult to think ourselves back to a time when all education was controlled by the aim of enabling men to think and to communicate their thoughts as clearly and coherently as possible’. It is a question, absence of gender neutral language aside, which is even more pertinent in today’s world in which the unprecedented avalanche of words is entirely unmatched by coherent meaning. Last year one of my contemporaries at Gonzaga commented perceptively to me that all that Joe actually wanted of us was that we should be serious. As we reflect, in this edition of Studies, on our country after the visit of Pope Francis, it is timely and important to ask ourselves whether we are in fact serious, as individuals and as a country. What do I mean by serious? Certainly not that we should be pious or pofaced . I would be the last to argue that there should be no more cakes and ale. Nor am I talking about single-mindedness in the pursuit of fortune or fame. The question which I believe Joe would want us to ask ourselves in 2019 is whether, as individuals and as a country, we are serious about who we are, about the gifts we have been given, about the values we cherish, about the truth we seek, about all the dimensions of our being. It is certainly not for me to define values or truth for others. My limited Are You Serious? Facing the Challenges Studies • volume 108 • number 430 203 aim in this article is to assess, in humility, the seriousness of our purpose in addressing those questions which matter, if I may borrow Wilfred Owen’s words, ‘before the last sea and the hapless stars’. At the outset, I would like to acknowledge the intelligence and integrity with which Ireland, working with others, has approached three of the great issues of our time: peace on our island, relations with our neighbour and our place in Europe. Peace in Northern Ireland There was no inevitability about peace in Northern Ireland. It required wisdom, imagination, courage and forgiveness. But at the heart of that achievement was a profound seriousness of resolve demonstrated by many people over several decades. Many of the heroes of the peace process were, of course, from Northern Ireland itself and from Britain; but our own politicians and civil servants can take significant credit for the steadfastness with which they kept their eye on the precious prize of peace, as well as their feet on the winding road which would lead us there. The normalisation of the relationship between Britain and Ireland, two countries which arguably had a longer enmity between them than any other two countries in history, was another immense achievement for both our peoples. The laying of wreaths by Queen Elizabeth and President McAleese in the Garden of Remembrance and at Islandbridge in 2011, in honour of those who died for Ireland and in British uniform, remains perhaps the greatest symbol of reconciliation in modern history. The progress which made that possible required serious intent as well as the committed effort over time of many people – from the two Heads of State down to...