René Ostberg

René Ostberg lives in Illinois and is currently working toward a master's degree in library and information science at Dominican University. She has written for U.S. Catholic, America and many other publications.

By this Author

In this image from the PBS documentary series "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland," Anne Marie, 10, throws bottles at British troops during a riot in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1981. (PBS/Courtesy of Magnum Photos/Peter Marlow)

PBS documentary 'Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland' tells brave, important stories

The people interviewed for "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" bear witness to war's damaging impact on youth and how the Troubles irrevocably altered their individual lives as well as their families and communities.

 

From left: Dylan Llewellyn as James, Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Erin, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell as Michelle, Nicola Coughlan as Clare, and Louisa Harland as Orla in "Derry Girls" (Courtesy of Netflix)

'Derry Girls' teen characters reach for peace, community and laughs

"Derry Girls," returning to Netflix with its final season, shows a political and religious conflict through the eyes of young girls — a perspective long overdue in representations of Ireland's Troubles and Catholicism.

Near a former Magdalene laundry in Galway, Ireland, a memorial with a sculpture by Mike Wilkins and a plaque with a poem by Patricia Burke Brogan honors the women who were held such institutions. (Flickr/William Murphy)

Book details long battle to get justice for Ireland's Magdalene survivors

Book review: The trauma inflicted by the Magdalene laundries lasts to this day. And thanks to the monumentally unwise historical marriage between the Catholic Church and the Irish state, secrecy and denial still prevail.

"The Circle of Thieves: Agnello Brunelleschi Attacked by a Six-Footed Serpent," engraving by William Blake, ca. 1825–27 (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rogers Fund, 1917)

What good is hell in the afterlife? Living through a global plague is hellish enough.

Dinty Moore's new book is packed with down-to-earth humor and clear prose. With devastating deadpan and straightforward, honest storytelling, he skewers the twisted theology that prioritizes belief in a punishing afterlife and inflicts psychic damage on people through guilt and fear.

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