Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Mamdani rips ‘genocide’ in Palestine at St. Patrick’s Day event — after he botches answer on unified Ireland
By
Matthew Fischetti and
Emily Crane
Published March 17, 2026
Updated March 17, 2026, 9:58 a.m. ET
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday compared the plight of the Irish to the “genocide” in Palestine — as he used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Democratic socialist dropped the Gaza-related remarks as he hosted Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson for breakfast at Gracie Mansion to kickstart the Big Apple’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities — though neither mentioned the plight of Iranians under brutal theocratic rule.
“Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long? The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,” Mamdani said.
Matthew Fischetti and
Emily Crane
Published March 17, 2026
Updated March 17, 2026, 9:58 a.m. ET
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday compared the plight of the Irish to the “genocide” in Palestine — as he used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Democratic socialist dropped the Gaza-related remarks as he hosted Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson for breakfast at Gracie Mansion to kickstart the Big Apple’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities — though neither mentioned the plight of Iranians under brutal theocratic rule.
“Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long? The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,” Mamdani said.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a St. Patrick’s Day celebration to rip the “deafening silence from so many” on the Israel-Hamas war.
Robert Miller for NY Post
He went on to laud Robinson, who was the first female president to lead Ireland in the ’90s, for her human rights record and history of standing with Palestine.
He went on to laud Robinson, who was the first female president to lead Ireland in the ’90s, for her human rights record and history of standing with Palestine.
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Litany of Catholic abuse scandals in Ireland
25 August 2018 - 06H00
© AFP | Pope Francis will be making his first visit to Ireland, which was last visited by a pope in 1979 when Pope John Paul II spoke to a crowd of 1.5 million people
LONDON (AFP) -
Accusations of wide-ranging abuse in Catholic institutions in Ireland, including but not limited to the sexual targeting of children by priests, date back several decades.
In a sign of the scale of the abuse, 14,500 people applied for compensation through an Irish government scheme for those abused at juvenile facilities run by religious groups between 1936 and 1970.
As Pope Francis prepares to meet some victims during a visit to Ireland this weekend, his first as pontiff, here are the most prominent cases to come to light:
- Predator priests -
Irish Catholic Church leaders are accused of having protected hundreds of predator priests suspected of sexually abusing thousands of children over decades.
Allegations in Ireland began to emerge in the 1980s, among the first in an eventual avalanche of cases globally.
They prompted criminal cases and Irish government enquiries in the following decades.
The Church published a series of its own probes from 2008, which found sexual abuse allegations against at least 85 priests since 1975.
It put in place detailed procedures for dealing with child sexual abuse in 1996.
But the reviews by its National Board of Safeguarding Children found senior clergy had repeatedly failed to report abuse by priests and misled enquiries before and after that date.
The most notorious case was that of Father Tony Walsh.
Pope Francis' speech was 'disgraceful' and contained 'extraordinary deflection', victims claim
Saturday 25 August 2018
Protesters demonstrate on the Ha'Penny Bridge during the visit of Pope Francis in Dublin, Ireland, August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Laura Lynott, Kevin Doyle and Esther McCarthy
August 25 2018 2:56 PM
Clerical abuse survivor Colm O’Gorman has described the speech by Pope Francis at Dublin Castle as an “incredible missed opportunity”.
Speaking after he attended the civic reception for the Pontiff, Mr Gorman said: “It is staggering to me that in 2018 we are still asking a Pope to take responsibility, not for his own actions necessarily but for the actions of the institution that he heads.
Protesters line the streets in Dublin
“It’s mind-boggling to me that to ask the Pope to tell the damn truth is a radical thing to suggest.”
Read More: Pope Francis speech: Calls clerical abuse scandal in Ireland 'repugnant', makes thinly-veiled reference to abortion referendum
Asked whether he had hoped the Pope would go further in his comments, the head of Amnesty in Ireland said he should have looked to talk to the people of Ireland.
Video by: PA
“It’s a huge shame. Frankly it’s rather disgraceful. This is about criminality at the highest level within an institution,” Mr O'Gorman said.
He added: “The Vatican has directed, implemented and instituted a cover of the crimes of clergy, including the rape and abuse of children, of women and vulnerable adults across the world.
Pope says church still shamed by failure over 'repugnant' Irish abuse
Reuters Staff
DUBLIN (Reuters) - The failure of church authorities to adequately address “repugnant” clerical child abuse crimes in Ireland remains a source of shame for the Catholic community, Pope Francis said as he made the first papal visit to Ireland since 1979.
Pope Francis arrives at the Presidential Residence during his visit in Dublin, Ireland, August 25, 2018. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
“I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the Church charged with responsibility for their protection and education,” Francis said in a speech at a state reception.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities - bishops, religious superiors, priests and others - adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.”
Reporting by Philip Pullella, editing by Padraic Halpin and Alison Williams
Saturday, August 18, 2018
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Former Irish President: Infant Baptism Violates Human Rights
Posted by Catholic News Agency on Tuesday Jun 26th, 2018 at 10:03
AM
Mary McAleese has said that the baptism of infants is a form of coercion and is calling on the Church to change its practice.
DUBLIN — Former Irish President Mary McAleese has said that the baptism of infants is a form of coercion and is calling on the Catholic Church to change its practice.
“You can’t impose, really, obligations on people who are only two weeks old, and you can’t say to them at 7 or 8 or 14 or 19, ‘Here is what you contracted; here is what you signed up to’ — because the truth is, they didn’t,” she said in a June 23 interview with The Irish Times.
Baptizing babies, she said, makes “infant conscripts who are held to lifelong obligations of obedience.”
DUBLIN — Former Irish President Mary McAleese has said that the baptism of infants is a form of coercion and is calling on the Catholic Church to change its practice.
“You can’t impose, really, obligations on people who are only two weeks old, and you can’t say to them at 7 or 8 or 14 or 19, ‘Here is what you contracted; here is what you signed up to’ — because the truth is, they didn’t,” she said in a June 23 interview with The Irish Times.
Baptizing babies, she said, makes “infant conscripts who are held to lifelong obligations of obedience.”
Monday, May 28, 2018
As Ireland Joins Europe’s Sprint From Catholic Fold, Francis Looks South
Pope Francis at the Vatican last week. The challenge for Francis is to keep the present decline of the church in Europe from becoming a preview of its future in South America and Africa.CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press
By Jason Horowitz
May 27, 2018
VATICAN CITY — When nearly one-third of Ireland’s Catholic population came to see Pope John Paul II celebrate a papal Mass in Dublin in 1979, divorce, homosexual acts and abortion were all illegal in the country. Ireland, like much of Europe, toed the line on Roman Catholic Church teaching.
In August, Pope Francis will return to Ireland for a World Meeting of Families event attended by the church’s most committed anti-abortion activists. But they will find themselves, after Saturday’s historic repeal of an abortion ban in a landslide vote, in a country that is clearly part of Europe’s secular sprint out of the Roman Catholic fold.
Across Western Europe, the church’s once mighty footprint has faded, in no small measure because of self-inflicted clerical sex abuse scandals and an inability to keep up with and reach contemporary Catholics. Church attendance has plummeted, parishes are merging, and new priests and nuns are in short supply. Gay marriage is on the rise, and abortion is widely legal.
And yet, Francis is not sounding the alarm or calling the faithful to the ramparts. He seems resigned to accept that a devout and Catholic Europe has largely slipped into the church’s past.
Instead, he has shifted his focus on the faith’s future to the global South from which he came. At the heart of Francis’ vision is a closeness of priests to the poor and desolate whom he believes the church should most serve.
This turn has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics like those in the Continent’s most faithful country, Poland, who have allied with a nationalist government to keep out migrants.
By Jason Horowitz
May 27, 2018
VATICAN CITY — When nearly one-third of Ireland’s Catholic population came to see Pope John Paul II celebrate a papal Mass in Dublin in 1979, divorce, homosexual acts and abortion were all illegal in the country. Ireland, like much of Europe, toed the line on Roman Catholic Church teaching.
In August, Pope Francis will return to Ireland for a World Meeting of Families event attended by the church’s most committed anti-abortion activists. But they will find themselves, after Saturday’s historic repeal of an abortion ban in a landslide vote, in a country that is clearly part of Europe’s secular sprint out of the Roman Catholic fold.
Across Western Europe, the church’s once mighty footprint has faded, in no small measure because of self-inflicted clerical sex abuse scandals and an inability to keep up with and reach contemporary Catholics. Church attendance has plummeted, parishes are merging, and new priests and nuns are in short supply. Gay marriage is on the rise, and abortion is widely legal.
And yet, Francis is not sounding the alarm or calling the faithful to the ramparts. He seems resigned to accept that a devout and Catholic Europe has largely slipped into the church’s past.
Instead, he has shifted his focus on the faith’s future to the global South from which he came. At the heart of Francis’ vision is a closeness of priests to the poor and desolate whom he believes the church should most serve.
This turn has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics like those in the Continent’s most faithful country, Poland, who have allied with a nationalist government to keep out migrants.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Ireland Wanted to Forget. But the Dead Don’t Always Stay Buried.
THE LOST CHILDREN OF TUAM
By DAN BARRY OCT. 28, 2017
TUAM, Ireland
Behold a child.
A slight girl all of 6, she leaves the modest family farm, where the father minds the livestock and the mother keeps a painful secret, and walks out to the main road. Off she goes to primary school, off to the Sisters of Mercy.
Her auburn hair in ringlets, this child named Catherine is bound for Tuam, the ancient County Galway town whose name derives from a Latin term for “burial mound.” It is the seat of a Roman Catholic archdiocese, a proud distinction announced by the skyscraping cathedral that for generations has loomed over factory and field.
Two miles into this long-ago Irish morning, the young girl passes through a gantlet of gray formed by high walls along the Dublin Road that seem to thwart sunshine. To her right runs the Parkmore racecourse, where hard-earned shillings are won or lost by a nose. And to her left, the mother and baby home, with glass shards embedded atop its stony enclosure.
Behind this forbidding divide, nuns keep watch over unmarried mothers and their children. Sinners and their illegitimate spawn, it is said. The fallen.
But young Catherine knows only that the children who live within seem to be a different species altogether: sallow, sickly — segregated. “Home babies,” they’re called.
The girl’s long walk ends at the Mercy school, where tardiness might earn you a smarting whack on the hand. The children from the home are always late to school — by design, it seems, to keep them from mingling with “legitimate” students. Their oversize hobnail boots beat a frantic rhythm as they hustle to their likely slap at the schoolhouse door.
A sensitive child, familiar with the sting of playground taunts, Catherine nevertheless decides to repeat a prank she saw a classmate pull on one of these children. She balls up an empty candy wrapper and presents it to a home baby as if it still contains a sweet, then watches as the little girl’s anticipation melts to sad confusion.
Everyone laughs, nearly. This moment will stay with Catherine forever.
After classes end, the home babies hurry back down the Dublin Road in two straight lines, boots tap-tap-tapping, and disappear behind those Gothic walls. Sometimes the dark wooden front door is ajar, and on her way home Catherine thrills at the chance of a stolen peek.
Beyond those glass-fanged walls lay seven acres of Irish suffering. Buried here somewhere are famine victims who succumbed to starvation and fever a century earlier, when the home was a loathed workhouse for the homeless poor.
But they are not alone.
Deep in the distant future, Catherine will expose this property’s appalling truths. She will prompt a national reckoning that will leave the people of Ireland asking themselves: Who were we? Who are we?
At the moment, though, she is only a child. She is walking home to a father tending to the cattle and a mother guarding a secret, away from the Irish town whose very name conjures the buried dead.
Ritual and Remembrance
In Ireland, the departed stay present.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Leo Varadkar Elected as Ireland's First Gay Prime Minister
Leo Varadkar Elected as Ireland's First Gay Prime Minister
June 14, 2017, at 9:30 a.m.
Leo Varadkar is congratulated by colleagues as he leaves Government buildings after being elected by parliamentary vote as the next Prime Minister of Ireland (Taoiseach) to replace Enda Kenny in Dublin, Ireland June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Reuters
By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Leo Varadkar was elected Irish Prime Minister on Wednesday, making the 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant the first gay premier of the once-staunchly Catholic country and the youngest person to hold the office.
Despite inheriting Europe's fastest-growing economy, he will face immediate challenges in the shape of neighboring Britain's exit from the European Union, a political crisis in Northern Ireland and a housing crisis at home.
Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny earlier this month as leader of the Fine Gael party. Colleagues pinned their hopes of an unprecedented third term on the straight-talking Varadkar, who they believe can widen their appeal in elections that may be triggered as soon as next year.
"Enda Kenny's leadership enabled me to become an equal citizen in my own country two short years ago and to aspire to hold this office, an aspiration I once thought was beyond my reach, at least if I chose to be myself," Varadkar said in reference to Ireland's 2015 vote to legalize gay marriage.
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"The government I lead will not be one of left or right. The government I lead will be one of the new European center as we seek to build a Republic of opportunity, that is a Republic in which every citizen gets a fair go and in which every part of the country stands to share in our prosperity."
Varadkar's elevation marks another chapter in the social change that has swept through the country of 4.6 million people that only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and legalized divorce two years later.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
The strange and sad death of the traditional Irish Sunday
Cormac MacConnell @irishcentral
June 08,2016 05:25 AM
She was the "Sunday in every week", the poet Austin Clarke called a beautiful looking woman. Back then Sundays were very different though.
All is changed, changed utterly, as the poet said, and has not been replaced by a terrible beauty in Ireland. If you were born in Ireland 20 years ago or thereabouts, and if you are returning on vacation soon, do not expect to relive again the suited, sated, somnolence of the kinda sacred Sundays of your youth.
A friend and I talked about the Saturday night scrubbings and shoe polishing and shirt ironing in preparation for Sunday Mass in the morning in the high pomp heydays of the Catholic Church. We both recalled the huge occasion that First Communion was then, and being taught that it was actually sinful to bite the wafer that was placed on your tongue at the climax of the ceremony.
And we both remembered the way the wafer seemed to adhere to the tongue forever before you could swallow it down and relax.
Did that happen to any of ye? I am quite certain it did.
It was our opinion that the popularity of Saturday evening Masses in the years after Vatican Two was the dagger in the throat of the old ritual Sundays. That and the fact that, for a host of reasons we need not detail here, the level of churchgoing by individuals and families has so sharply declined in the last 20 years especially.
Before then it was forbidden to work on Sundays, except for necessary farmwork like milking the cows, for example.
Many countrymen, I recalled, wore their Sunday suits, collar and tie, all day to show they were not working. My friend McAvinney said that much the same happened in his town. And about everywhere else for that matter.
The GAA football matches, both at club and county level were also a huge element of the enjoyment of the traditional Sundays. In fairness, due to the continuing popularity of the GAA the games still draw huge crowds during the championship season and are still family affairs. But it is the commercial backdrop that is so totally different.
Gone are the days when folk could not work on Sundays. They are now one of the busiest and most bustling days of the week. Everything is open and trading away, tills are jangling, supermarkets are full.
The consequences of the tourism industry and the necessity to cope with it together with Irish lifestyle changes means that Sunday is no longer a day of rest. It is far from it.
The fact that both parents of a typical family are now in the workplace means that major shopping expeditions are now more easily feasible on Sundays. The family can be together, really, for the only time of the working week, and the footfall in the malls reflects this. Cafés and pubs and hotel dining rooms benefit.
The trading situation has so totally changed that McAvinney was not one bit surprised when I told him that Mondays are commonly like the old Sundays nowadays because it is then that many traders close their doors for a rest after the Sunday rush!
In a nutshell then, if you arrive here on vacation soon, rest easy that you will not find this old Republic closed down totally on what used be properly called the Sabbath day.
June 08,2016 05:25 AM
She was the "Sunday in every week", the poet Austin Clarke called a beautiful looking woman. Back then Sundays were very different though.
All is changed, changed utterly, as the poet said, and has not been replaced by a terrible beauty in Ireland. If you were born in Ireland 20 years ago or thereabouts, and if you are returning on vacation soon, do not expect to relive again the suited, sated, somnolence of the kinda sacred Sundays of your youth.
A friend and I talked about the Saturday night scrubbings and shoe polishing and shirt ironing in preparation for Sunday Mass in the morning in the high pomp heydays of the Catholic Church. We both recalled the huge occasion that First Communion was then, and being taught that it was actually sinful to bite the wafer that was placed on your tongue at the climax of the ceremony.
And we both remembered the way the wafer seemed to adhere to the tongue forever before you could swallow it down and relax.
Did that happen to any of ye? I am quite certain it did.
It was our opinion that the popularity of Saturday evening Masses in the years after Vatican Two was the dagger in the throat of the old ritual Sundays. That and the fact that, for a host of reasons we need not detail here, the level of churchgoing by individuals and families has so sharply declined in the last 20 years especially.
Before then it was forbidden to work on Sundays, except for necessary farmwork like milking the cows, for example.
Many countrymen, I recalled, wore their Sunday suits, collar and tie, all day to show they were not working. My friend McAvinney said that much the same happened in his town. And about everywhere else for that matter.
The GAA football matches, both at club and county level were also a huge element of the enjoyment of the traditional Sundays. In fairness, due to the continuing popularity of the GAA the games still draw huge crowds during the championship season and are still family affairs. But it is the commercial backdrop that is so totally different.
Gone are the days when folk could not work on Sundays. They are now one of the busiest and most bustling days of the week. Everything is open and trading away, tills are jangling, supermarkets are full.
The consequences of the tourism industry and the necessity to cope with it together with Irish lifestyle changes means that Sunday is no longer a day of rest. It is far from it.
The fact that both parents of a typical family are now in the workplace means that major shopping expeditions are now more easily feasible on Sundays. The family can be together, really, for the only time of the working week, and the footfall in the malls reflects this. Cafés and pubs and hotel dining rooms benefit.
The trading situation has so totally changed that McAvinney was not one bit surprised when I told him that Mondays are commonly like the old Sundays nowadays because it is then that many traders close their doors for a rest after the Sunday rush!
In a nutshell then, if you arrive here on vacation soon, rest easy that you will not find this old Republic closed down totally on what used be properly called the Sabbath day.
Thursday, March 03, 2016
Memory Of Potato Famine Burdens 'Immortal Irishman'
Author Interviews
Updated March 3, 20168:44 AM ET Published March 3, 20165:11 AM ET
7:19
Civil War buffs and the Irish-American community have probably heard of Thomas Francis Meagher. Renee Montagne talks to New York Times columnist Timothy Egan about his book The Immortal Irishman.
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Monday, March 24, 2014
Irish abuse victim, Boston cardinal named to Vatican sex abuse panel
Eric J. Lyman / USA Today | Mar 24, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) An Irish woman who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child is among eight members of a special commission appointed by Pope Francis on Saturday (March 22) to start the long and arduous process of confronting the church’s chronic sexual abuse problems.
Cardinal Seán O’Malley presided at the Annual Rites of Election for the Archdiocese of Boston which was held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday (March 9). There was a record number in attendance at the two liturgies. Photo by George Martell – Pilot New Media, courtesy of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Francis appointed four women and four men — a mix of clergy and laypeople — from eight different countries to a panel that will advise the church on the best ways to protect children, identify and punish abusers, and train church personnel. Plans for the panel first emerged in December.
The creation of the commission is one of the strongest steps Francis has taken to confront the problem that has severely stained the church’s reputation and cost it billions in court settlements and legal fees. The pontiff has called the issue of sexual abuse “the shame of the church” and vowed to take strong steps to confront the issue.
The high-profile names on the commission give some indication of the importance Francis has given to the panel. In addition to Marie Collins, an Irish anti-abuse activist who was molested at age 13 by a priest in the 1960s, the group includes Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston; former Polish prime minister Hanna Suchocka; and British Baroness Sheila Hollins, a noted psychiatrist and a member of the U.K. House of Lords.
“Pope Francis has made it clear that the church must uphold the protection of minors amongst her highest priorities,” the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a statement.
Calls for action have become louder following condemnation from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in January, with many critics saying the Vatican has acted too timidly in confronting the problems.
Even after the appointment of the committee, victims of abuse said the church should do more, with the U.S.-based Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests saying Francis must still “take strong steps right now to protect kids, expose predators, discipline enablers and uncover cover-ups.”
Hollins, founder of the victims support organization One in Four, has called for the Vatican to punish church leaders who fail to implement or enforce church rules on pedophile priests, while O’Malley in 2011 famously published a database of Boston-area clergy accused of sexual abuse.
Suchocka is a former minister of justice who was also Poland’s ambassador to the Vatican for a dozen years ending in 2013, and Hollins is an ex-president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Medical Association.
(Eric J. Lyman writes for USA Today)
Source
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Friday, January 03, 2014
Richard Haass talks: Blame game gets under way in earnest
/>Richard Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan
BY NOEL MCADAM – 03 JANUARY 2014
Ulster Unionists and Alliance have clashed as the political momentum of the Haass talks process begins to show signs of flagging.
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Men accused of Boxing Night car-stealing spree in Derry refused bail
UK applicants for universities drop
The fallout from the failure to reach agreement over flags, parading and the past brought a resumption of the blame game between the parties.
The further unravelling since First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinnessmade public the final text produced by Dr Haass came as parties began their post-talks internal consultations.
The SDLP last night confirmed its support for the Haass proposals and setting up a working group. Party leader Alasdair McDonnell said: "The SDLP believe that the opportunity of this moment needs to be grasped.
"I will write to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to urge that a five party working group is immediately convened. Its purpose is not a talking shop and to again go around the houses. Its purpose to is work up the implementation of the Haass O'Sullivan proposals, plan the legislation that is necessary and bring resolution to issues that remain."
UUP boss Mike Nesbitt said the major problem with getting the process back on track was the Alliance Party "cherry-picking" the final document. Mr Nesbitt, who refused to reveal whether he would recommend acceptance of the text when he meets his party executive on Monday, added: "Cherry-picking is a Pandora's box, once opened, very difficult to contain."
He also called on Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness to take the next steps.
But Alliance negotiator Chris Lyttle said unionist parties had refused to even consider proposals on the regulation of flags on lampposts. And the East Belfast MLA said his party had real concerns about the attitude and motivation of other parties on the flags issue and the consequences for failing to show leadership.
Sinn Fein, meanwhile, urged the Stormont parties not to fudge their responses to the proposals and warned they would have problems in selling aspects of the document to its support base.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said: "(We) would like to have seen some aspects of the proposed agreement strengthened and improved further. More work is required on parity of esteem, equality and respect for all cultures and identities. However, agreement on everything was not possible."
BY NOEL MCADAM – 03 JANUARY 2014
Ulster Unionists and Alliance have clashed as the political momentum of the Haass talks process begins to show signs of flagging.
ALSO IN THIS SECTION
Unionists urged to declare stance
'Sham marriage' groom met French bride at Belfast airport, court hears
Men accused of Boxing Night car-stealing spree in Derry refused bail
UK applicants for universities drop
The fallout from the failure to reach agreement over flags, parading and the past brought a resumption of the blame game between the parties.
The further unravelling since First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinnessmade public the final text produced by Dr Haass came as parties began their post-talks internal consultations.
The SDLP last night confirmed its support for the Haass proposals and setting up a working group. Party leader Alasdair McDonnell said: "The SDLP believe that the opportunity of this moment needs to be grasped.
"I will write to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to urge that a five party working group is immediately convened. Its purpose is not a talking shop and to again go around the houses. Its purpose to is work up the implementation of the Haass O'Sullivan proposals, plan the legislation that is necessary and bring resolution to issues that remain."
UUP boss Mike Nesbitt said the major problem with getting the process back on track was the Alliance Party "cherry-picking" the final document. Mr Nesbitt, who refused to reveal whether he would recommend acceptance of the text when he meets his party executive on Monday, added: "Cherry-picking is a Pandora's box, once opened, very difficult to contain."
He also called on Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness to take the next steps.
But Alliance negotiator Chris Lyttle said unionist parties had refused to even consider proposals on the regulation of flags on lampposts. And the East Belfast MLA said his party had real concerns about the attitude and motivation of other parties on the flags issue and the consequences for failing to show leadership.
Sinn Fein, meanwhile, urged the Stormont parties not to fudge their responses to the proposals and warned they would have problems in selling aspects of the document to its support base.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said: "(We) would like to have seen some aspects of the proposed agreement strengthened and improved further. More work is required on parity of esteem, equality and respect for all cultures and identities. However, agreement on everything was not possible."
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Friday, October 04, 2013
Ireland votes in referendum to scrap the Senate
04/10 12:41 CET
Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand all did it. Today, Ireland decides whether to abolish the Irish upper chamber, known as the Seanad, or Senate.
The Irish national parliament, known as the Oireachtas, consists of the President and an upper and a lower house.
Most major Irish political parties favour abolishing the Senate. Opposition party Fianna Fáil does not. It argues that the government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny wants to centralise its power.
Kenny’s government says that eliminating the Senate would save €20 million a year, which, in this time of crisis, is a necessity.
Recent opinion polls suggest over 60 percent of Irish people support scrapping the Senate.
Results of the referendum are expected on Saturday.
Source
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Sunday, July 07, 2013
35,000 march in Dublin against Irish abortion bill
Shawn Pogatchnik
Anti-abortion protesters holding placards walk through Ireland's capital, Dublin, in an anti-abortion protest Saturday, July 6, 2013. More than 35,000 activists marched to the parliament building to oppose Irish government plans to enact a bill legalizing terminations for women in life-threatening pregnancies. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill is expected to be passed into law next week. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik)
3 hours ago • Associated Press
Bearing rosary beads and placards declaring "Kill the bill! Not the child," more than 35,000 anti-abortion activists marched Saturday through Dublin to demand that the Irish government scrap plans to legalize terminations for women in life-threatening pregnancies.
Demonstrators from across Ireland, a predominantly Catholic island of 6.5 million, marched for two hours through the capital to Leinster House, the parliament building, where lawmakers next week are expected pass the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Speakers demanded that the government put its bill to a national referendum. "Let us vote!" the crowd chanted.
The two-year-old coalition government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny drafted the bill following last year's death of a miscarrying woman in an Irish hospital. Three investigations since have determined that Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died from blood poisoning one week after admission for a miscarriage. Doctors denied her pleas for an abortion, even though her uterus had ruptured, because the 17-week-old fetus still had a heartbeat. By the time it stopped, investigations concluded, Halappanavar already had contracted a lethal dose of septicemia.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said Saturday that, had the bill been law last year, Halappanavar might have received a prompt abortion and survived. He appealed to anti-abortion rebels in the main government Fine Gael party to accept the bill or abstain from the final vote expected Wednesday night. The bill received overwhelming backing in an initial vote this week.
Ireland outlaws abortion, a position underscored by a 1986 referendum amending the constitution to declare that the unborn have a right to life. But the Supreme Court in 1992 ruled that the constitution equally defends the pregnant woman's right to live, therefore life-saving abortions were legal.
Crucially, Ireland's highest court said this meant a woman should receive an abortion even if the only threat to her life was caused by her own suicide threats. Six governments since have refused to pass legislation backing that 1992 judgment, leaving obstetricians divided and confused over whether certain life-saving abortions can be performed legally.
In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland's failure to legislate meant pregnant women in dangerous medical conditions were forced to travel overseas, chiefly to neighboring England, for abortions. It said travel and bureaucratic delays meant some women's medical conditions worsened unnecessarily.
The government bill would permit an abortion for a suicidal woman if a panel of three doctors _ one obstetrician and two psychiatrists _ unanimously agree that the woman's threats are real. Abortion rights advocates say this rule means women in such circumstances still will travel to England, where abortion was legalized in 1967.
But those marching Saturday warned that women would conspire with sympathetic doctors to fake suicide threats, putting Ireland on a slippery slope to wider abortion access. Ireland is just one of two European Union members, alongside Malta, that outlaws the practice.
Before the march, Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin led a central Dublin church in prayers for Ireland to keep abortion illegal. But in a nuanced sermon Martin told the crowd, among them families sitting on the floor beside packed pews, that pro-life campaigners must be careful not to come across as heartless to those on the other side of the debate.
Martin said those seeking to keep abortion out of Ireland must make their case "not through slogans but through the witness of life that we give." If not, he said, "what we say will appear, to quote Pope Francis, as being cold, impersonal and oppressive for people's day-to-day lives."
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Tuesday, July 02, 2013
This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church
Note: Victims interviewed use some vulgar language on at least two occasions when describing their abuse.
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Friday, June 21, 2013
Ceremony marks 50th anniversary of Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland
KENNEDY Jun-20-2013 (970 words) With photos posted June 19. xxxn
By Christiana Elgin
Catholic News Service
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- In 1963, Dunganstown in County Wexford, Ireland, welcomed one of its own back to his ancestral birthplace.
June 27 marks 50 years since President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland. Kennedy was the first Catholic to become U.S. president.
On June 18, a commemorative ceremony honoring the president's Irish heritage was held at Arlington National Cemetery. Fire from Kennedy's graveside eternal flame was used to light a torch that was being transported to the quayside Kennedy Monument in the town of New Ross in Wexford. In a June 22 ceremony, it was also to be used to light a flame in memory of all Irish emigrants.
Kevin Conmy of the Embassy of Ireland presided over the ceremony. He said the flame will be transported using Olympic technology and be delivered by an escort detail from the Irish Naval Service.
"In Ireland, we like our commemorations," Conmy said in an interview with Catholic News Service. "Commemorations are very important in terms of passing on our culture and our experiences and the visit from President Kennedy in 1963 was a historic event and so that's why we're celebrating it."
Charge d'affaires Conmy said it is important for such a historic visit to transcend generations. "The election of President Kennedy, that third generation Irish elected to the highest office in the world, was a real inspiration to Irish people everywhere, but particularly in Ireland."
Colors of both Ireland and the U.S. were presented by respective members of the military, including a bagpipe performance by Irish Defense Forces Cpl. Anthony Kelly of a hymn that was also performed at the late president's state funeral.
Members of the Kennedy and Shriver families were recognized at the ceremony. Representatives of the Peace Corps and the Special Olympics also were present, including about 10 Special Olympics athletes greeted by the movement's CEO, Timothy Shriver. His late mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in 1968.
Emmy-nominated singer and Wexford man Michael Londra performed a rendition of Ireland's national anthem "Amhran na bhFiann" ("The Soldiers' Song") in Gaelic. Londra, according to his website, has played the role of the late Bobby Kennedy in a performance of "JFK: A Musical Drama," at the invitation of U.S. director and choreographer Larry Fuller.
Award-winning Irish tenor Anthony Kearns performed "The Star Spangled Banner." Kearns opened the 2013 National Memorial Day Parade in Washington and among the many other events where he has performed was a bipartisan Friends of Ireland lunch in March, invited by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
Kearns told CNS following the Arlington ceremony that he tries to stay outside the political fray.
"Music transcends all boundaries, I'm in the middle of it all," said Kearns, who also hails from County Wexford. "It's a great opportunity to be here and I lend my voice to various occasions."
Freshman U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., spoke at the Arlington memorial, applauding Ireland's unwavering spirit. He is the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, who was a U.S. senator and served as attorney general in his brother's administration.
In a reflection related to his great uncle's words to a joint session of the Irish Parliament during his presidential visit, Congressman Kennedy said he thought of the president's journey as the story of a young man returning home.
"Fifty years ago, speaking in Cork, President Kennedy said most countries send out oil or iron, steel or gold or some other crop, but Ireland has only one export, and that is its people," Congressman Kennedy said. "While this country imports raw material and finished goods to feed our economy, we welcome the stranger to strengthen our spirit. For almost a full generation, they were mostly Irish.
"Now they come from every corner of the world. We light this torch today as a symbol of the bond that was forged when a young American president found his way home."
A 1963 story on President Kennedy's visit by the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, the predecessor to CNS, reported that he said no larger nation ever did more than Ireland to keep Christianity and Western culture alive in the darkest centuries.
Minister Paul Kehoe, the Irish government's chief whip, laid a wreath of assorted flowers in the colors of the Irish flag on the Kennedy family grave.
A Catholic priest closed the ceremony with a prayer.
"All throughout Scripture, the flame represents presence of the spirit of God," said Father Timothy Hubbs, a lieutenant colonel and senior Army chaplain at Arlington National Cemetery.
"From the fire of the burning bush, God commissioned Moses to leave his home and seek the freedom of his people. By a pillar of a flame, the angel of the Lord led the Israelites through the desert to the promise land. By tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit indwelled the apostles and empowered them to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation."
The same Spirit "enlivens our hearts" and "leads us out of darkness and into the light of Christ," he continued. "Therefore, as we call down God's blessing, on this torch and these lamps and all that the flame represents, our foremost concern must be that our Christian lives bare out the kind of witness we are called to live as the people of Christ in this generation."
Father Hubbs prayed that the "love and affection of the angels and saints" would be with those taking the torch lit with the flame from the Kennedy grave in Arlington "to kindle a memorial in the Irish homeland."
"May God shield you on every step, may he aid you in every path," he prayed, "and may he keep you safe on every slope, on ever hill, and on every plane, in the air or on sea, until you are home again. Amen."
END
By Christiana Elgin
Catholic News Service
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- In 1963, Dunganstown in County Wexford, Ireland, welcomed one of its own back to his ancestral birthplace.
June 27 marks 50 years since President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland. Kennedy was the first Catholic to become U.S. president.
On June 18, a commemorative ceremony honoring the president's Irish heritage was held at Arlington National Cemetery. Fire from Kennedy's graveside eternal flame was used to light a torch that was being transported to the quayside Kennedy Monument in the town of New Ross in Wexford. In a June 22 ceremony, it was also to be used to light a flame in memory of all Irish emigrants.
Kevin Conmy of the Embassy of Ireland presided over the ceremony. He said the flame will be transported using Olympic technology and be delivered by an escort detail from the Irish Naval Service.
"In Ireland, we like our commemorations," Conmy said in an interview with Catholic News Service. "Commemorations are very important in terms of passing on our culture and our experiences and the visit from President Kennedy in 1963 was a historic event and so that's why we're celebrating it."
Charge d'affaires Conmy said it is important for such a historic visit to transcend generations. "The election of President Kennedy, that third generation Irish elected to the highest office in the world, was a real inspiration to Irish people everywhere, but particularly in Ireland."
Colors of both Ireland and the U.S. were presented by respective members of the military, including a bagpipe performance by Irish Defense Forces Cpl. Anthony Kelly of a hymn that was also performed at the late president's state funeral.
Members of the Kennedy and Shriver families were recognized at the ceremony. Representatives of the Peace Corps and the Special Olympics also were present, including about 10 Special Olympics athletes greeted by the movement's CEO, Timothy Shriver. His late mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in 1968.
Emmy-nominated singer and Wexford man Michael Londra performed a rendition of Ireland's national anthem "Amhran na bhFiann" ("The Soldiers' Song") in Gaelic. Londra, according to his website, has played the role of the late Bobby Kennedy in a performance of "JFK: A Musical Drama," at the invitation of U.S. director and choreographer Larry Fuller.
Award-winning Irish tenor Anthony Kearns performed "The Star Spangled Banner." Kearns opened the 2013 National Memorial Day Parade in Washington and among the many other events where he has performed was a bipartisan Friends of Ireland lunch in March, invited by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
Kearns told CNS following the Arlington ceremony that he tries to stay outside the political fray.
"Music transcends all boundaries, I'm in the middle of it all," said Kearns, who also hails from County Wexford. "It's a great opportunity to be here and I lend my voice to various occasions."
Freshman U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., spoke at the Arlington memorial, applauding Ireland's unwavering spirit. He is the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, who was a U.S. senator and served as attorney general in his brother's administration.
In a reflection related to his great uncle's words to a joint session of the Irish Parliament during his presidential visit, Congressman Kennedy said he thought of the president's journey as the story of a young man returning home.
"Fifty years ago, speaking in Cork, President Kennedy said most countries send out oil or iron, steel or gold or some other crop, but Ireland has only one export, and that is its people," Congressman Kennedy said. "While this country imports raw material and finished goods to feed our economy, we welcome the stranger to strengthen our spirit. For almost a full generation, they were mostly Irish.
"Now they come from every corner of the world. We light this torch today as a symbol of the bond that was forged when a young American president found his way home."
A 1963 story on President Kennedy's visit by the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, the predecessor to CNS, reported that he said no larger nation ever did more than Ireland to keep Christianity and Western culture alive in the darkest centuries.
Minister Paul Kehoe, the Irish government's chief whip, laid a wreath of assorted flowers in the colors of the Irish flag on the Kennedy family grave.
A Catholic priest closed the ceremony with a prayer.
"All throughout Scripture, the flame represents presence of the spirit of God," said Father Timothy Hubbs, a lieutenant colonel and senior Army chaplain at Arlington National Cemetery.
"From the fire of the burning bush, God commissioned Moses to leave his home and seek the freedom of his people. By a pillar of a flame, the angel of the Lord led the Israelites through the desert to the promise land. By tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit indwelled the apostles and empowered them to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation."
The same Spirit "enlivens our hearts" and "leads us out of darkness and into the light of Christ," he continued. "Therefore, as we call down God's blessing, on this torch and these lamps and all that the flame represents, our foremost concern must be that our Christian lives bare out the kind of witness we are called to live as the people of Christ in this generation."
Father Hubbs prayed that the "love and affection of the angels and saints" would be with those taking the torch lit with the flame from the Kennedy grave in Arlington "to kindle a memorial in the Irish homeland."
"May God shield you on every step, may he aid you in every path," he prayed, "and may he keep you safe on every slope, on ever hill, and on every plane, in the air or on sea, until you are home again. Amen."
END
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
G8 summit: Politics live blog
• Obama and Putin prepare for crunch talks on Syria
• Turkey summons UK ambassador over Guardian revelations
• Obama hails NI peace process as blueprint for peace
• Cameron welcomes US-EU trade talks
• Tax campaigners issue warning over developing countries
• Rolling coverage of the G8 summit in Lough Erne
Andrew Sparrow at Lough Erne
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 June 2013 13.53 EDT
Barack Obama and David Cameron at Enniskillen Integrated Primary School today. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Obama hails Northern Ireland's peace as a global example
President Obama gestures during a speech at Belfast Waterfront Hall in Northern Ireland. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press / June 17, 2013)
By Kathleen Hennessey
June 17, 2013, 3:32 a.m.
Obama arrived in Belfast on a wet, foggy Monday morning to attend a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. The summit of world leaders at a golf resort outside Belfast would have been thought impossible during the Troubles -- the conflict between Catholics and Protestants that long created instability, poverty, terrorism and deep prejudices.
Obama spoke at Belfast Waterfront Hall, an auditorium where President Clinton hailed the signing of the Good Friday peace accords 15 years ago.
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Significant progress has been made in the 15 years since the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Accords, including a Catholic-Protestant government and the disarmament of the IRA and outlawed Protestant groups responsible for most of the 3,700 death toll. But tearing down Belfast's nearly 100 "peace lines" — barricades of brick, steel and barbed wire that divide neighborhoods, roads and even one Belfast playground — is still seen by many as too dangerous. Obama cited that playground in his speech, lauding an activist whose work led to the opening of a pedestrian gate in the fence.
Acknowledging the reality of a sometimes-fragile peace, Obama recalled the Omagh bombings that killed 29 people and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest attack of the entire conflict and occurred after the Good Friday deal.
Peace will be tested again, Obama said in Belfast.
"Whenever your peace is attacked, you will have to choose whether to respond with the same bravery that you've summoned so far or whether you succumb to the worst instincts, those impulses that kept this great land divided for too long. You'll have to choose whether to keep going forward, not backward," he said.
Last month, the Catholic and Protestant leaders of Northern Ireland's unity government announced a bold but detail-free plan to dismantle all peace lines by 2023. British Prime Minister David Cameron formally backed the goal Friday, and Obama followed with his own endorsement Monday.
The president specifically endorsed an end to segregated housing and schools, calling it an essential element of lasting peace.
"If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs, if we can't see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden — that too encourages division. It discourages cooperation," Obama said.
One symbol of that effort to end the segregation was on display as Obama spoke to an audience that brought together students from both faiths, effectively integrating Northern Ireland's schoolchildren if just for a morning. Later, in Enniskillen, Obama and Cameron rolled up their sleeves at one of Northern Ireland's first integrated schools, talking hunger and poverty with children who were studying the G-8.
Drawing on America's own imperfect battle with segregation, Obama recalled how well over a century after the U.S. Civil War, the nation he leads is still not fully united. His own parents — a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya — would not have been able to marry in some states, Obama said, and he would have had a hard time casting a ballot, let alone running for office.
"But over time, laws changed, and hearts and minds changed, sometimes driven by courageous lawmakers, but more often driven by committed citizens," he said.
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