How Pope Leo XIV steers between his predecessor’s hope for a restoration of liturgical unity and the hopes of traditionalists for access to older forms of the Mass will be among the early challenges of his papacy My piece for this week's The Tablet thetablet.co.uk/features/tradi…

My favourite Irish interaction so far is when a family friend/distant relative popped by unannounced and as she was leaving asked “tell me Portia, are you finding time for things like baking, or to do flowers?”

My latest for the The Catholic Herald, on why "if you can't afford children, don't have them" is a terrible take 👶👶 thecatholicherald.com/why-put-obstac…

“If you can’t afford kids, don’t have them” is more than heartless—it’s anti-family, anti-life, and anti-future. Catholic teaching sees children not as luxury goods, but as blessings. ✍️ Portia Berry-Kilby Read here ➡️ heraldl.ink/why-couples #Children #Family #Faith

Wondering whether the end of classical education has led us to moments like this. 12 year olds should be able to recognise such a fallacy

Nadia’s “reproductive justice” does not end in reproduction…

Overheard two teenage girls on the bus to Dublin: “My biggest fear is being a farmer’s wife” “My biggest DREAM is being a farmer’s wife” The real Irish chat

I’m sure these are all lovely milestones for a parent. But “dropping baby off at nursery at nine months old” is not a milestone mums look forward to. More funded childcare is not the answer to the baby bust.

Making jam for the first time and struck by how bizarre it would have been a few generations ago to be a 27 year old woman with no experience of jam making

Kemi thinks having 3 children is an irresponsible lifestyle choice. She’s stuck in the demographic consensus of the 1970s.

I expected large families at the SSPX, but I don’t think I’d actually pictured what that looks like in any real way. It felt like being in a school assembly with a couple of adults dotted amid a sea of children

Thrilled with our latest issue of Hearth & Field quarterly, with pieces by so many excellent thinkers and do-ers, including Nadya Williams Hadden Turner T. Carman Mary C. Tillotson Portia (and many others!). Subscribe here: hearthandfield.com

Been reading Hearth & Field No. 4 up in our ornamental cherry tree. You can, too! (I mean, not in my tree...unless you're local. But in yours!) Check it out: hearthandfield.com/print-premium-… It's a rich issue, with pieces by Hadden Turner T. Carman Mary C. Tillotson Nadya Williams

"A woman trading in her career for motherhood might not result in an indelible mark on her soul as priesthood would for a man, but its importance should not be denigrated." ✍️ Portia Berry-Kilby Read here ➡️ heraldl.ink/motherhood-tru… #Catholic #Feminism #Women

“The number of children per mother has remained stable since the 1970s. What has changed dramatically is the number of women who never become mothers at all. The rate of childlessness was less than 5% in 1970; by 2020 it had reached 30%” Stephen J Shaw telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/2…

As birthrate plummets to record low and primary schools close, the Government urge people to have more children. Yet they are simultaneously promoting a Bill which allows abortion up to birth - in a country where 10 million babies have been aborted. One British baby is lost to

This is a beautiful image

The establishment elites like to paint Ireland as a liberal utopia, unshackled from the supposedly oppressive Catholicism of yesteryear. But Steen’s emergence as a popular presidential prospect, albeit one who was sidelined by the establishment, gives hope of a country falling

✍️My latest (Pitched and written whilst feeding my ten day old newborn 😅)