Almost one third of Irish children are raised in materially deprived households, a new study published by UNICEF has revealed. Further, Ireland has the fourth worst income inequality in the EU ranked just below Britain, Belgium and Bulgaria.
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has described as “nonsense” calls to remove the traditional prayer before the commencement of Dáil business. Reacting to the call, made by Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy as attempts to form a new government continue, Deputy McGrath said: “This is pure shenanigans for the sake of publicly I think. It’s a distraction from the real issue.”
As a Bill to legislate for physician-assisted suicide was placed before the Canadian Parliament, pro-life groups urged legislators to vote ‘No’ on a law they describe as “dangerous”. The long anticipated Bill C-14 will now be discussed by elected officials with a June 6 deadline for a final decision.
The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has called on parties currently negotiating the formation of the next government to set aside the ‘Citizens’ Convention’ on abortion proposed by Fine Gael. “It is high time that the acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny took this idea off the negotiating table so that the question of a referendum is no longer allowed to further delay the vital process of setting up a new Government,” a spokesperson for the PLC said.
A Christian student, Felix Ngole, who was expelled from his University of Sheffield course in Britain after he posted Facebook comments in support of the biblical understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman is to seek legal action after his appeal against that expulsion was rejected.
A same-sex couple on China has lost a legal case which they hoped would let them marry under Chinese law. The case, heard before a court in Changsha City is the first recorded legal action of its kind in Chinese history. The case arose when the couple at the heart of the case were denied a marriage licence in 2015. Homosexuality was decriminalised in China in 1997.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland has reiterated his call for parties in Northern Ireland to commit to the protection of the unborn. The call came as Archbishop Martin led the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs (NICCOSA) to its latest round of meetings with parties, this time with the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein.
Ireland’s former president, Mary McAleese has criticised Pope Francis’ newly released Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia as “traditional” and lacking “imagination”. Mrs McAleese said she was personally disappointed with the document’s “overall failure to clearly address many of the challenges facing families within the Church today”.
