It has become a familiar debate in the media, not least on BBC Radio Ulster. Last week, when filling in on the Stephen Nolan show, William Crawley moderated a conversation about civil partnerships for people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual … Read more...
Category: Irish politics
The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland, Book Launch – Has the EU Encouraged Reconciliatory Politics?
Queen’s University recently hosted the launch of a new book edited by Dr Katy Hayward (Queen’s) and Dr Mary Murphy (University College Cork), The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland: North and South (Routledge, 2010). At the launch, some of … Read more...
The Irish Catholic Church & the Civil Partnerships Bill: What’s ‘Morally Wrong?’
Why are the Irish Catholic bishops complaining about the Civil Partnerships Bill, which is being debated this week in the Dáil?
The bishops’ criticisms have not been welcomed by government ministers, who say they have taken great pains to make … Read more...
Bloody Sunday and the Saville Report: David Cameron and How to Say Sorry
With the Saville Report, the City of Derry and Northern Ireland now have a document that has, in the main, satisfied the families of the victims who were shot dead by the British Army in 1972. The families and other … Read more...
David McWilliams: Review of the Outsiders
Irish economist David McWilliams takes to the stage this week at the Abbey’s Peacock Theatre in Dublin for a rather unorthodox theatrical offering – a 90 minute monologue on what’s wrong with the Irish economy, why our political leaders and … Read more...
Norman Hamilton Takes Presbyterian Post: Moderating a Shared Future?
Norman Hamilton was installed as the new moderator last night at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. A pastor for the past 22 years at Ballysillan Presbyterian, in a tough part of north Belfast, Hamilton can speak … Read more...
The Ryan Report and Irish Catholicism One Year On
In the recently published book, The Dublin/Murphy Report: A Watershed for Irish Catholicism? (Columba Press, 2010), Fr Enda McDonagh writes (p. 113):
… Read more...‘Given the spate of commentary on and of proposals for Church reform which have followed the Ryan
Social Justice Ireland & ‘An Agenda for a New Ireland’
Earlier this week, the NGO Social Justice Ireland (SJI) published ‘An Agenda for a New Ireland,’ a 250-page socio-economic review of what went wrong in Ireland, what hasn’t changed, and what state and citizens might do to improve living on … Read more...
Atheism in the Public Square: Marginalised or Militant?
Are atheists marginalised in our public conversations, even in the largely secular West? Last week, atheists had their first ever official visit to the White House. Sixty representatives from the Secular Coalition for America met with officials and discussed … Read more...
Evangelicals & Gay Rights in Ireland: Evangelical Alliance’s Surprise Support for Civil Partnerships Bill
One issue that is sure to bring Christian voices out in the public sphere is gay rights. The overwhelming impression that one gets is that Christians are opposed to extending gay rights, particularly when it comes to marriage or civil … Read more...