Same Hymn Sheet. Different Day.

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“Had a bishop, or even a prominent conservative politician or commentator, written a similar letter to a court pleading for clemency in a statutory rape case, the condemnations of that person would have been heard the length and breadth of the country for days on end.

David Norris has had to withdraw from the presidential race, but if a well-known Catholic such as Senator Ronan Mullen had written that letter, his political career would be over as well. He would be hauled before some Seanad committee or other in the manner of an Ivor Callely, and reduced to atoms.

David Norris’s supporters say he acted in a misguided way because of love. But if Senator Mullen had written a letter seeking clemency on behalf of a priest who happened also to be a childhood friend, no such excuse would be granted. He would still be destroyed.”

One Rule For Those On The Left And Another Rule For Those On The Right (David Quinn Irish Independent)

But, instead of scrutinising the facts as would be automatic if the protagonist were a bishop or some less-favoured politician, most media coverage contrived to twist and reduce the meaning of Norris’s letter to the Israeli court, and to ignore the way it contextualizes Norris’s views on paedophilia, as communicated in his interviews with Magill and the Irish Daily Mail .

In exiting the presidential campaign, Norris was made to look like some kind of martyr, done down by a combination of illiberal forces and his own romantic folly. He loved, they told us, not wisely but too well.

Does nobody think it necessary to ask Norris the kind of questions journalists would immediately and automatically ask of a bishop found to have remained silent about an episode of clerical abuse?

Pertinent Questions Ignored In Norris Case (John Waters, Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)
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