The referendum on the Eighth Amendment is proposing “a wide-ranging right to abortion”, a group of 100 lawyers have said. The Constitution as it stands respects the right to life of mothers, and “protects the right to life of the unborn only to the extent that such protection is consistent with the right to…
A leading cardinal has said the Church in Ireland must be prepared to consider closing hundreds of churches to concentrate resources on building strong faith communities. Speaking in Dungarvan on Monday, April 16, on ‘What the Irish Church could learn from the recent history of the Church in Holland’, Utrecht’s Cardinal Willem Eijk said that…
The Referendum Commission has refused to answer queries about a senior member of a company assisting with their referendum information campaign, who tweeted that bishops were “hypocritical old eunuchs”. Dylan Cotter, the Executive Creative Director of BBDO Dublin, linked an article about a pastoral message Bishop Kevin Doran had sent to parishioners, which stated that if abortion was…
Dubbed Ireland’s king of country music Big Tom was also described as a man who was “very committed to his locality and parish” after his death this week. Tributes have streamed in for the music legend, who died aged 81 on Tuesday. Thomas McBride [his real name] dominated the showband scene in the 1960s and…
University chaplains have voiced solidarity with students struggling to pay exorbitant student accommodation costs which have seen yearly increases in some cases, with some saying prices are back to “Celtic Tiger era”. Students from Dublin City University (DCU) have been protesting the large rent hikes of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) facilities in the area.…
The Pope should do more than ask forgiveness from the survivors of a prominent Chilean priest if the Church is serious about a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to fighting abuse, Marie Collins has said. Last week Pope Francis apologised for underestimating the seriousness of the sexual abuse crisis in Chile following a recent investigation into allegations…
A barrister has lodged High Court proceedings against Health Minister Simon Harris TD and Senator Catherine Noone over tweets he has described as defamatory. Benedict Ó Floinn BL claims that following a panel discussion on RTÉ Radio’s Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra the politicians tweeted comments that were defamatory, disparaging and damaging to his professional…
The second anniversary of the death of the young Derry nun, Sr Clare Crockett, who died in an earthquake in Ecuador, was marked this month with the release of a film about her remarkable life. The 33-year-old Servant Sister died when the school building she was in collapsed on April 16, 2016, but her positive…
Ecuadorian bishops have expressed their “deep concern” and “sorrow” at the killing of two journalists and their driver who were kidnapped after crossing their country’s border into Colombia. A statement from the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference has called for an end to violence and injustice by armed political and social groups following the “violent murder” of the team of…
The decision by Inclusion Ireland to join the Together for Yes campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution is a betrayal of those that it claims to represent, a disability rights group has said. Inclusion Ireland, the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability, announced on April 13 that it was joining…
Greg Daly
Chai Brady
Colm Fitzpatrick