Teacher Enoch Burke has failed in a bid to be released from Mountjoy Prison.
Mr Burke has refused to use a pupil’s preferred gender pronouns and name after the pupil declared themselves to be ‘gender non-binary’. He was suspended with pay after having a row with his principal and barred from the school pending a disciplinary hearing. When he turned up to the school anyway, he was arrested and jailed for contempt of court. He is refusing to purge the contempt on the grounds of conscience rights.
He was committed for contempt on September 6th, after saying he could not, arising from his Christian beliefs, comply with an injunction of August 30th preventing him attending or teaching at the school.
Mr Burke has received the support of prominent gender-critical feminists such as Irish psychotherapist, Stella O’Malley.
On the other hand, Senator Ronan Mullen has called on Mr Burke to purge his contempt of court: “Citizens must have respect for the rule of law and only in extreme situations should somebody consider defying a court injunction.”
The number of deaths recorded from suicide in the State in 2019 was down on the previous year’s figures, reducing from 540 to 524 according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Despite the decrease, 2019’s figures remained above that of 2017, when 510 such deaths were noted, and 2015 which saw 497.
The data shows the rate of suicide among males increased by 4.6 per cent between 2015 (390 deaths) and 2019 (408 deaths), while female suicides rose by 8.4 per cent, from 107 to 116 in the same period.
The 116 deaths by suicide among females in 2019 represented a 17.7 per cent decline on 2018’s figures, however the CSO noted that 2018 had recorded the highest number of female deaths from self-harm (141) since its records began in 1950.
Compared to other European countries, Ireland’s standardised suicide rate in 2017 was 11.0 per 100,000 people, above the EU member state average of 10.1.
An Italian religious sister, aged 83, was brutally murdered in an armed attack on a church mission in Mozambique.
Sister María de Coppi, a Comboni religious sister who had been working for 59 years in the country, was shot and died instantly in the attack on the Chipene mission in the diocese of Nacala, which began at 9.00 pm and continued until 2.00 am. The attackers ransacked and burned not only the mission church but also the school, the health centre, the dwellings of the priests and of the nuns, the library, the boys’ and girls’ boarding houses and the vehicles belonging to the mission. “They destroyed everything”, reported Bishop Alberto Vera of Nacala, speaking on the telephone to the Portuguese national office of Aid to the Church in Need.
“The attackers broke open the tabernacle and vandalised part of the sacristy, looking for whatever they could find – probably money”, the bishop continued. Speaking to ACN, Bishop Vera said he did not think this was in fact an attack against the Church, but rather a way of seeking international attention. “This is a major coup for them because there were foreign religious here… They are seeking some kind of international publicity. I don’t think it was directed against the Church. What they did was an act of terror.”
An Aontú Cllr in Northern Ireland says he was physically attacked over his pro-life views.
Emmet Doyle, a member of Derry City & Strabane District Council issued a statement following an assault on him on Friday.
“Whilst in the city centre in the early hours of Friday morning I suffered a vicious assault in Waterloo Street,” Cllr Doyle said.
“After entering a food establishment alone, a group of people entered, some of whom I recognised to be members of a group deeply opposed to my stance on the right to life. They engaged me verbally and I left with my order.
“On leaving the premises I was accosted and received a cut to my head, bruises and black eyes. The attack was unprovoked.
He added: “As an elected representative, I passionately defend what I believe in and act on behalf of constituents regardless of their views. . . . Nothing will stop me serving my constituents, I won’t be silenced.”
Three-quarters of people living together as a couple give a high overall rating to their relationship, a new survey says. Less than 10% of people rate their relationship quality poorly. The demographic that rated their relationship satisfaction the highest was those over the age of 55, and those who have been in a relationship for over 30 years.
The survey was carried out by Amarach Research on behalf of Accord, the Catholic bishops’ relationship counselling service.
However, 81% of people agreed that money and financial pressures are the most significant source of pressure for couples today. The ability to buy a home was also flagged by younger couples as one of the main pressures they face.
Overall though, ratings for relationships were very positive in Ireland, with almost 90% of couples rating the level of trust in their relationship as very strong, 80% rating their relationship happiness as very strong, and over 70% rating their quality of communication within their relationship as very strong.
An Irish academic who will conduct research into the impact of Covid on religion has said it appeared the Government in the Republic “dictated” pandemic rules to Churches while in the North there was more “give and take”. The Republic had the longest bans on public worship during the height of the pandemic of any country in Europe. Worshippers could potentially go to prison for violating the ban and one priest was fined for doing so.
The research aims to ascertain whether, or to what extent, the role of religion has changed in Ireland, Poland, Germany and Canada.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Sequence, Dr Ganiel stated Ireland is a “really interesting case” as the Churches are organised on an all-island basis but were interacting with two different jurisdictions.
She said: “In the Republic of Ireland quite often what seemed to appear to be the case was that the Government kind of dictated restrictions to religious groups and there wasn’t a lot of give and take, whereas in Northern Ireland it seemed to be more a relationship of negotiation.
Researchers have found that childless people tend to have more permissive social attitudes and that having children, rather than aging, helps explain why other people tend to become less permissive.
“There is this idea that as you get older you become more conservative from experience and from being bitten by the real world,” said Dr Nick Kerry, co-author of the research from the University of Pennsylvania.
“But it doesn’t seem to be the case. If you look at people who are not parents, you just do not see an age difference.” What changes people’s attitudes instead appears to be having children.
The study potentially offers a fresh take on the decline in birthrates seen in many countries. “I think it could contribute to liberalisation in those countries,” said Kerry. Many countries now have fertility rate well below replacement level.
A Bafta-nominated composer has been suspended from the company he co-founded after expressing his support for JK Rowling and her views on transgender issues.
Christian Henson, 50, shared a video on Twitter of Graham Linehan, the television writer who goes by the name ‘Glinner’, in which he referred to legal action against the Tavistock gender clinic in London.
In a post accompanying Linehan’s video, Henson said: “As a parent I can no longer keep my mouth shut about this. I’m in full support of glinner & @jk_rowling.” His tweet amassed nearly 1,000 retweets and more than 3,000 likes before Henson closed his Twitter account.
This was followed by a statement from Spitfire Audio which said that Henson had stepped down from his role at the company, which he co-founded in 2007.
Meanwhile, an employment tribunal in Nottingham has started hearing the case of a school chaplain who has claimed he was unfairly dismissed from his job after he opposed plans to promote an LGBT acceptance curriculum.
Rev Bernard Randall was made redundant from Trent College, in Derbyshire, at the end of 2021.
He said parts of the programme were incompatible with the Christian ethos of the fee-paying school as some of it was “ideologically loaded and misleading”.
The new Health Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey says she’s “not planning to make any government changes” on abortion laws in the UK, after questions were raised about her past voting record.
Ms Coffey is a practicing Catholic who recently voted against making take-at-home abortion pills, which were introduced during the pandemic, more widely available.
“The law on abortion is settled,” she told ITV News.
“I’m a democrat, my focus is going to be on the ABCD (ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists), but it’s important we keep focus on what affects the majority of the patients, as well as of course individuals.
“I’m not planning to make any government changes.”
During an interview in June, just after the US Supreme Court made the landmark decision to overturn the Roe vs Wade ruling which gave abortion in the United States constitutional protection, the then Work and Pensions Minister said she’d “prefer that people didn’t have abortions.”
There have been criminal attacks on 63 pro-life organisations, in 26 US states and the District of Columbia, since the leak of the draft of the Supreme Court’s judgement on overturning Roe v Wade.
That’s according to a new report from the Religious Freedom Institute.
There have also been 32 Catholic churches attacked since the Dobbs leak, and in 17 of those attacks it was clearly about abortion.
The attacks, however, predated that event: “Since late May 2020, attacks have occurred against at least 174 Catholic targets in 38 states and the District of Columbia, including arson, desecration and defacement, property destruction, theft, and other state and federal crimes.”
Senior fellow at the National Review Institute, Kathryn Jean Lopez, says the attacks are against religious liberty and pluralism. She adds: “This ought to be taken more seriously by government, law enforcement, and the media”.
