Cloyne

Taoiseach’s speech: This is not Rome… this is a republic of laws

Patrick Corrigan on July 21, 2011, 1:55 am43 Comments | Readers 57

A sea-change in Irish government-Catholic Church relations took place yesterday. In the government’s official response to the Cloyne Report, Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave an unprecedented speech to the Dáil, excoriating the Vatican for its efforts to block co-operation with the investigation by civil authorities of clerical child abuse: … for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic, as little as three …

Time for a clerical child abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland

Patrick Corrigan on July 15, 2011, 9:53 am70 Comments | Readers 130

Momentum is building for an inquiry into clerical child abuse in Northern Ireland. With four inquiries now completed south of the border – Ferns, Ryan, Dublin and now Cloyne – northern abuse victims are rightly asking: what about us? Their calls have now been echoed by SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness: I absolutely believe there should be the same thorough investigations in the northern dioceses as there have been in previous dioceses in the south. We …