The Irish Government has handed over €2.3 million of taxpayers’ money, since 2022, to the world’s leading pro-abortion group, International Planned Parenthood Federation.

The bombshell news was contained in a reply to a Parliamentary Question by Independent TD Carol Nolan.

In response, the Pro-Life Campaign’s Eilís Mulroy called the revelation “astounding”.

“Planned Parenthood is the single largest provider of abortions in the US. In addition, many of its practices are deeply questionable. There is credible evidence that Planned Parenthood has been involved in the sale of the body parts of aborted babies. Meanwhile, its international affiliate International Planned Parenthood Federation is the main supplier and promoter of abortion worldwide”, she said.

Deputy Carol Nolan was also scathing in her criticism of the Government’s move.

“Not content with directing millions in taxpayers funding to abortion and ending innocent lives here in Ireland, the Government is now actively blurring the lines for abortion access abroad and promoting an ideology that is inextricably linked to its practice. How much death is enough?”

A retired church pastor has denied charges that his protest against abortion near a Derry hospital was illegal despite taking place within a so-called ‘safe-access zone’ which forbids even silent pro-life vigils or prayer near facilities that conduct abortions.

The 76-year-old clergyman disputes the charges on a point of devolution and under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR].

Clive Johnston, from Belmont Road in Sion Mills, is a former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland and will be represented by former Attorney General John Larkin.

He is charged with protesting in a ‘safe access zone’ at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, “with the intent of, or being reckless as to whether, it had the effect of influencing a protected person whether directly or indirectly in connection with the protected person attending the premises” on July 7th last year.

Article nine of the ECHR “provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”.

A separate court will hear arguments that the matter should be a devolved one and any legislation imposed by Westminster upon Northern Ireland, as this was, is invalid.

New figures from the NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) suggest there will be more pensioners than schoolchildren in Northern Ireland by 2030.

The Nisra figures show that between 2022 and 2030 the pensioner population will have grown from 315,000 to 356,000. The South will reach this cross-over point at about the same time according to CSO statistics.

The number of children, aged 15 and under in the North, will have fallen from 389,000 to 349,000.

The reduction is driven by long term trends of increased life expectancy and falling birth rates.

A rapidly aging society is likely to have significant implications for public services.

The impact on schools will be felt over the next decade.

A Co Antrim school principal, Leanne Smyth, told the BBC that the number of pupils in her school is down more than a third compared to 19 years ago.

A seminarian abducted on March 3 from a parish rectory in the Nigerian Diocese of Auchi was murdered by his abductors, an official of the diocese has confirmed. A priest he was abducted with has been released.

Father Peter Egielewa and Andrew Peter were kidnapped from the rectory of St. Peter Catholic Church in Edo state when gunmen attacked both the rectory and church, destroying doors and windows, and led the abductees into a nearby forest.

A Church statement confirmed the safe release of Father Ekweli, ending 10 days of captivity, but noted that the 21-year-old major seminarian, Andrew Peter, “was gruesomely murdered by the abductors”.

The local Bishop, Gabriel Ghiakhomo Dunia, called on country’s security agencies to stop the deteriorating security situation, adding: “Life has been hell for our people in recent times.”

The world is sleepwalking towards certain social upheaval precipitated by decades-long falling birth rates, unless urgent action is taken, according to a leading scientist.

Writing in the Irish Times, Dr William Reville, emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC, cited a recent McKinsey Global Institute report that details how falling fertility rates are reshaping global population. He also noted Ireland’s declining rates from 4.1 children per woman in 1960 to 1.54 and falling in 2022. A figure of 2.1 is needed for a population to simply remain stable.

If unchecked, the decline will cause the existing social contract to be drastically revised as the retired population grows and the working-age population declines rapidly.

One way to at least ameliorate the problem would be to increase low fertility rates but, he says, “hardly anyone sees this solution as even remotely likely to happen”.

“Very few think women who have grown accustomed to having one or no children will ever return to a higher birth rate. But, I believe this mindset could be changed by making changes to ensure the division of labour necessary to care for and raise children from birth onwards is divided strictly evenly between fathers and mothers”.

There is a systematic religious persecution and targeted harassment of Christians in Pakistan through the abuse of the National Identity Card system.

That’s according to the international human rights law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom.

They were commenting after a judge ruled in favour of a 24-year-old Christian brick kiln worker, Sufyan Masih, who had been fraudulently registered by his employer as a Muslim on his National Identity Card. His boss did this in an apparent attempt to enslave Sufyan, including withholding pay and prohibiting him from returning to his family.

Reversing the registration risked exposing Mr Masih to the charge of apostasy or being criminally prosecuted under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes which could result even in a death penalty.

However, a judge ruled in March that Sufyan was a victim of fake “conversion”, and that his Muslim employers had fraudulently registered him as a Muslim in the national database.

Tehmina Arora, ADF International, commented that his is yet another example of how laws in Pakistan are “weaponized to punish and target Christians”.

Doctors have accused the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) of “grossly misrepresenting” the views of its members by softening its stance on assisted suicide/euthanasia. A vote by the governing body overrode the wishes of rank and file GPs by changing the College’s stance to one of neutrality rather than of opposition.

The organisation announced last week that it was no longer formally opposed to euthanasia, instead adopting a “neutral” position.

But critics say this shift is “baffling”, given that a poll of Royal College of GPs (RCGP) members shows support for euthanasia among GPs has fallen sharply in recent years.

More than 250 GPs have signed a letter to The London Times expressing their disappointment in the college’s leadership

A recent survey of members showed that 47.5 per cent believed the RCGP should remain opposed to so-called ‘assisted dying’, while only 13.6 per cent supporting the idea of a neutral position.

Meanwhile, 33.7 per cent wanted their organisation to support the legalisation of assisted suicide — down from 40 per cent in 2019, the last time members were surveyed on the issue.

A Spanish court has rejected an appeal by a man against the authorisation of euthanasia for his 24-year-old daughter.

The woman had attempted suicide several times, the last of which left her in a wheelchair, and in April 2024, she formally requested euthanasia.

A 2021 law allows adults with “serious and incurable” diseases that cause “unbearable suffering” to end their lives.

That was scheduled for August 2nd this year, but the court suspended it the day before at the request of the father.

In the recent hearing, seven doctors who treated the young woman, specializing in psychiatry, neurorehabilitation, and neurology, testified that she met the requirements for ‘assisted death’.

In addition, forensic experts from the justice system said that the young woman’s decision-making capacity remains intact.

The court ruled that the woman’s father is not entitled to appeal her euthanasia as the case does not involve minors or incapacitated individuals.

Senator Sharon Keogan has revealed that the Government has given a summer deadline to enact a law which would ensure the right of unmarried fathers to be named on their children’s birth certificates.

Senator Keogan said that after more than a decade of delays and repeated inquiries last week the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, “told us that he expects that the law will be put into action ‘before the end of quarter two this year’”.

In 2014, the law regarding Civil Registration was updated. It required that unmarried mothers would be obliged to provide the details of the child’s biological father if he was not present.

The Senator said: “To date, however, the government and the HSE have not put this law into practice.

“This has meant that for the past decade, in the case of unmarried parents, the registration of the child’s father was near-totally at the discretion of the mother. Unmarried fathers who were not registered on their children’s birth certs could only be included if they pursued court action,” she said.

“The application of this law will help to safeguard the rights of unmarried fathers and ensure that children will be aware of their parentage.”

An Post’s latest St Patrick’s Day stamp design featuring cartoon snakes is a troubling sign of the country’s increasing secularisation, according to one Irish priest expert in stamps.

In a letter to The Irish Catholic, Fr Patrick Moore PP of Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath, lamented that despite St Patrick “driving out the snakes of pre-Christian paganism, here, they reappear, in the form of our annual An Post contribution for the feast—or rather now, the festival—of St Patrick’s Day, as they call it.”

A longtime member of An Post’s Philatelic section—the division dedicated to the study of stamps—Fr Moore expressed disappointment that major Catholic figures like St Oliver Plunkett, Ven. Matt Talbot, and St Laurence O’Toole have been overlooked in recent commemorative stamp releases.

Fr Moore pointed to what he sees as a broader cultural shift, similar to the recent push to equate St Brigid with a pre-Christian Celtic goddess. “The very valuable stamp commemorations should be holistic and not narrow-minded,” he urged, calling for a more balanced representation of Ireland’s history.