Last Saturday morning at 9am, the counting of votes began on the ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums held the day before. Soon results started to trickle through from count centres around the country. By 10am political journalists were calling it: it was a No vote in both referendums. Following the announcement of the massive defeat, the…
Category: Opinion
Don’t overlook ‘the tribe of widows’
There has been, obviously, much discussion about the role of women in the national sphere recently; but one of the groups drawing least attention is what we might call ‘the tribe of widows’. When I was involved, with others, in forming the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970, the position of widows was one of…
A ‘horrible vision of society’ rejected in Friday’s referenda
The Irish will never want to remove ‘mothers’ from the Constitution, writes David Quinn No-one expected such resounding defeats of the two referendums put before the Irish people by the Government, proposals that were backed by every party in the Dail aside from Aontu with its one TD, and Independent Ireland with its three. The…
Referendum result damning for political leadership class
The Government and the main opposition parties have a lot to think about. They should start by apologising to the people today, writes Rónán Mullen The people of Ireland have had their first chance in four years to give their view as an electorate on the way they are being governed. This referendum result is…
Referendum shows it’s time to let NGOs sink or swim
Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have had far too much influence for too long, writes Michael Kelly One of the standout moments for me in the national count centre in Dublin Castle on Saturday afternoon was a brief exchange between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín. The referendum result hadn’t been called yet, but the mood…
The ‘special position’ some NGOs have has been challenged … now let’s go one further
I happened to be at one of the count centres last Saturday morning as ballot boxes opened and early tallies showed what was in store in the ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums. Looking at the results rolling in, one ‘No’ voter remarked to me that he recently read about how much funding the National Women’s Council…
Pope takes a swipe at gender theory, says it ‘cancels humanity’
When he was elected Successor of Peter in 2013, Pope Francis asked the pontifical academies to study the phenomenon of human trafficking, making the fight against it one of the first and most enduring hallmarks of his papacy. Now, it appears the Pope has set a new topic in his sights: So-called “gender theory”, saying…
Pope faces civil, ecclesial backlash for Ukraine ‘white flag’ remarks
After Pope Francis made remarks in a recent interview implying that Ukraine ought to raise a “white flag” and open negotiations in its ongoing war with Russia, his remarks were met with fierce backlash from both Ukrainian civil and ecclesial authorities. Speaking while making a visit to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish of Saint George…
Hungarian Catholics defend Church record on tackling abuse
Jonathan Luxmoore Prominent Hungarian Catholics have defended their Church’s record on tackling sexual crimes by clergy after a top-level government abuse scandal led to the appointment of a new national president of the country. “This sin exists here, as everywhere in the world — we don’t see any specific pattern which would distinguish Hungary from…
Hate speech bill – out with the old and in with the new?
Theo McDonald In September 2020 Trinity College’s Historical Society, or the Hist, rescinded an invitation to prominent Atheist and religion sceptic Richard Dawkins because the “comfort of members” of the centuries-old society was, apparently, at stake. Having “read his Wikipedia page and researched him briefly” the auditor of the supposedly illustrious society, founded in 1747,…