Baroness Nuala O’Loan has criticised the Irish media of being “aggressively hostile” to the Catholic Church and of having contributed to its decline in Ireland. Speaking at a conference in Boston, USA, Baroness O’Loan said “Papers like The Irish Times now run columns in which things are said about and imputed to Catholics which would not be tolerated in the context of Islam or Judaism, or of homosexuals or humanists”.

Pope Francis has once again spoken up in defence of the family, insisting that it should be a key focus for all following the Synod of the Family convoked last October. Answering journalists’ questions, the Pontiff moved past the media focus on Communion for remarried Catholics to state: “‘Do you not realise that that is not the important problem? Don’t you realise that instead the family throughout the world is in crisis? The family is the basis of society. Do you not realise that the young don’t want to marry? Don’t you realise that the falling birth rate in Europe is something to cry about?..These are the big problems.”

The US state of Kentucky, which imprisoned county clerk Kim Davis for five days after her refusal to sign a same-sex marriage licence has passed legislation allowing for such refusal in the future. As a compromise on the issue, the new law sees all names and titles from the state’s marriage license forms removed entirely.

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.”