High Court

What the High Court Decision on Marriage Equality Means

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Like many people, my first reaction to the August 17 High Court decision regarding Marriage Equality in Northern Ireland was deep disappointment. I saw many friends’ expressions of frustration and heartbreak given the political impasse at Stormont and the current marginalization of LGBT people throughout Northern Ireland not just in policy but in society as well. However, the decision is right for the future of Northern Ireland’s legal system despite its current social impact. (For good commentary on the jurisprudent …

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A wrong turn in Constitutional Law…

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On Friday, I called the High Court Ruling a constitutional nicety. Could be I was wrong about that. Carl Gardner is about as sober a legal commentator as it gets on the London beat. And he has serious concerns about the future implications of this ruling: Hmmm… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, …

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Jeffrey Donaldson admits that Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries will never provide full disclosure…

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It ought to come as no surprise, but no doubt it will, that Jeffrey Donaldson said rather bluntly on Nolan this morning, chances of full disclosure from the paramilitary organisations responsible for most Troubles related deaths (loyalists, 29.9%, Republican 57.8%) are none. The full burden of disclosure around killings is apparently only aimed at state forces (9.8%). Even if state agents within the paramilitaries were responsible for individual murders, it’s unlikely that we can move move neatly from paramilitary to …

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High Court rules NI abortion legislation breaches Article 8 of European Convention on Human Rights

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HIGH COURT rules that abortion legislation in Northern Ireland breaches Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to provide an exception to the prohibition on abortion in cases of a foetal fatal abnormality (at any time during the pregnancy) or where the pregnancy is the result of sexual crime (up to the date when the foetus is capable of existing independently of the mother).

Another Societal Milestone Passed; What Next for Progressing Ireland?

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Last Saturday’s overwhelmingly positive referendum outcome in support of constitutional recognition for same-sex marriage was a great result for progress, equality, liberty, inclusion, rights for everyone and all things good in Ireland. It was a proud and historic moment for Irish society generally and especially for those Irish citizens living in the Republic who had and positively utilised the residential privilege to vote. To think homosexual acts were only decriminalised in the state 22 years ago in 1993… Having found themselves under the repressive moral and …

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Politicians must become Pro-Woman to stop further horrors

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I’m not pro-choice. Nor am I pro-life. I reject both of those labels because they’ve been used in such a pejorative way for so long that they have come to denote extreme views on both sides of the debate around the rights of women and the rights of unborn children that to identify as one automatically makes you a target of hatred and abuse from the other. The recent tribulations of Dawn Purvis, Director of the Marie Stopes clinic in …

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High Court decides to #GivePootstheBoot

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The High Court in Belfast has again ruled against the  lifetime blood ban imposed on gay and bisexual men by the Department of Health, not least on the grounds that it was irrational. The High Court found that: The minister has decided that MSM (males who have sex with other males) behaviour creates such a high risk of infection to the donor that such donors must be permanently deferred with the result that such blood cannot enter the Northern Ireland …

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NI Company ordered to pay £32million damages over Irish pork dioxin contamination

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The BBC reports that the High Court in Dublin has ordered the Northern Ireland based company, O’Neill Fuels Ltd, Coalisland, County Tyrone, to pay Millstream Power Recycling Ltd, Bunclody, County Wexford, €38.7million (£32m) damages as a result of the Irish pork dioxin contamination in 2008. From the BBC report Millstream supplied the pig meal containing dioxins that led to the recall of Irish pork products. It was ordered after pig meal on a number of farms was found to have had …

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