GE 16 saw a number of prominent socially liberal politicians lose their seats. Alan Shatter, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Jerry Buttimer, James Reilly, Alex White and Anne Ferris each took very public positions in favour of gay marriage and abortion during the last term, and each lost a seat in one of the most socially liberal...
Joe Humphreys writing in The Irish Times on Tuesday claims that the Catholic Church need have no fear of secularism. He is writing in opposition to public funding of denominational education. He admits that secularism can be hard to define, and so indeed is ‘liberal democracy’. He quotes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his favour but...
The Irish Times in its leader today is pleased that the Catholic Church isn’t telling people how to vote. It says this is a sign of a “humbler” Church. One wonders if the Irish Times will follow suit and not tell its readers how to vote in this election or next time a referendum comes...
The bishop of Cork and Ross, John Buckley, issued an excellent statement a few days ago to coincide with the General Election campaign. In it, he tackles issues such as the right to life, housing and immigration. He urges Catholics to “engage with them [politicians] when they call looking for our vote. Our priorities and...
When you can’t have a child of your own, is it better to adopt or use a surrogate? This is the question a gay couple ask of an upmarket agony aunt in the New York Times magazine. The couple’s concern (and it is a concern that could just as easily apply to a straight couple)...
The previous blog dealt with a complaint the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) rejected in relation to a RTE Ray D’Arcy Show item on the marriage referendum. This blog focuses on another complaint made in relation to the same show but this time on an item which dealt with abortion. Again, the BAI gets it...
Last week the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) released its latest batch of decisions relating to complaints made against broadcasters. Very often the complaints allege that a particular broadcast failed the test of objectivity and impartiality. The BAI upheld none of the five complaints it investigated. Two of the complaints related to RTE’s Ray D’Arcy Show:...
Earlier this week it emerged that an Irish family sought a death certificate for an unborn child killed along with her mother in a horrendous car accident. The coroner declined the request and instead offered to register the death as a stillbirth. The family are taking the matter to the High Court on Constitutional grounds....
The last couple of weeks have brought a little bit of clarity to public debate on the medical conditions at the heart of calls to permit greater access to abortion in Ireland. The medical conditions in question result in the unborn baby having a seriously curtailed life expectancy. They primarily include such conditions as anencephaly,...
Coverage of the death of David Bowie has been huge, bigger than the coverage of the death of Michael Jackson who sold far more albums. Why has the death of Bowie had a bigger impact? It’s because he had a bigger cultural impact and one reason he made a bigger cultural impact is because, in...
