The SDLP may be down but it’s not out, writes Greg Daly Sinn Féin’s victory in the West Tyrone by-election this month was not unexpected, but though Órfhlaith Begley comfortably succeeded her party colleague Barry McElduff, winning 46% of the vote, a more interesting story might be told by looking at shifting vote shares.…
The number of students seeking help from the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) to help them get a third-level education continues to rise, and the society needs help to help them. That’s the message this week from the SVP as it launches a national appeal to support its Education and Training Bursary Fund. “SVP members know…
Health Minister Simon Harris needs to address what the real impact of his proposed abortion law would be on abortion rates in Ireland, the LoveBoth campaign has said, claiming that Ireland’s abortion rate is likely to rise by over 5,000 a year if the Eighth Amendment is repealed. Speaking at the launch this morning of…
Plans are in place to accommodate a crowd of 600,000 people in Dublin’s Phoenix Park when Pope Francis celebrates Mass there this August, according to the Government. Speaking in the Dáil last week, independent TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief, said the Government expected up…
Irish democracy is threatened by Google’s actions last week, writes Greg Daly Online ads, said Save the 8th spokesman John McGuirk back in March, had always been planned as a key part of the referendum strategy in the campaign to keep Ireland’s constitutional protection for unborn children. “It’s going to be very significant, we’re…
Students should remember how they can make a difference for friends who are struggling, Ireland rugby coach Joe Schmidt said last Friday at a Mass in Knock to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Kerry teenager Donal Walsh. “If you see that one of your friends is struggling, in a dark place and…
There’s a passage in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass where Alice meets Humpty Dumpty, perched on his wall, and is startled to find him using the word ‘glory’ to mean, in effect, ‘q.e.d.’, and says so. “When I use a word,” the scornful egg replies, “it means just what I choose it to mean…
Five of Ireland’s most eminent obstetricians and gynaecologists have said they are “horrified” by comments made in recent days by Drs Peter Boylan and Rhona Mahony, and said it is “deeply regrettable” that some campaigners have sought to foster needless fears among voters around issues of maternal health. In a letter provided to the Save…
Carpooling and ‘Mass-link’ services to bus isolated parishioners to churches around the country could be ‘creative’ ways of helping rural dioceses cope with declining clerical vocations, Limerick’s Bishop Brendan Leahy has said. The bishop’s comments come against the background of plans for a State-subsidised ‘drink-link’ bus service intended to ward off fears that strict new…
Plans to reform an American diocese by drastically reducing the number of parishes could offer a ‘radical’ template for rejuvenating the Archdiocese of Dublin, a priest-author has said. The comments come following reports that the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has announced plans to reduce the current 188 parishes to just 57 over the next few…