Monthly Archives: July 2012


From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Vatican’s most senior representative in Australia failed to co-operate with a government inquiry into child sexual abuse in Ireland and once invoked diplomatic immunity in a civil suit in which a victim was suing the church.

Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto (top) assumed the job of apostolic nuncio in 2008, a role equivalent to the Vatican’s ambassador.

He had served in the same role in Ireland but left before the government released an inquiry into sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, the 2009 Murphy Report. The report criticised Archbishop Lazzarotto for not responding to a 2007 request to provide the inquiry with evidence of abuse.

Colm O’Gorman (above), a former Irish senator and now the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, told the Herald Archbishop Lazzarotto invoked diplomatic immunity, which caused him to drop a lawsuit against the Vatican.

Mr O’Gorman launched the suit against his local diocese and the Vatican’s representatives in Ireland, seeking compensation for being repeatedly raped as a teenager by Father Sean Fortune, Ireland’s most notorious paedophile priest.

”I was told in no uncertain terms that having secured diplomatic immunity, the nuncio would assert it in court,” Mr O’Gorman said. ”His lawyers told me that if I pursued the case, they would use that immunity to have it thrown out and then seek full legal costs from me.”

Archbishop Used Immunity In Civil Suit (Sydney Morning Herald)

Thanks Mark Geary

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Via Producer Al, who sez:

“Inclusive crowd surfing. Only in Ireland.”

Alternatively:

Three drug-related deaths and nine stabbing incidents were under investigation last night after a concert in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. A man who took ill at the concert on Saturday night later died at Connolly Hospital. Another concert-goer from Co Laois died some hours after leaving the venue after falling ill in Ronanstown, west Dublin. Gardaí are investigating if drugs were a factor in both deaths.

 

Gardaí Investigate Suspected Drug Deaths After Concert (Conor Lally and Kitty Holland, Irish Times)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp3ms6wsYLI

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtoM5O0eXvE

What you may need to know:

1. Yes, it’s the movie of the classic ’70s TV show.

2.It’s directed by geezercore maestro Nick Love, the filmmaker behind
The Firm, The Business and The Football Factory. We can’t believe he
didn’t give Danny Dyer a part.

3. Ray Winstone plays the John Thaw role, while rapper-turned-thesp Ben
‘Plan B’ Drew gets his Dennis Waterman on. It was originally meant to
be Winstone and Jason Statham, but The Stat was busy elsewhere.
Kicking ass, presumably.

4. Winstone had a role in the original Sweeney TV show, back in 1976:

5. Here’s the thing: if the original TV show has THE BEST THEME TUNE
EVER, you should probably use it in the trailer, you slaaaag.

Release date (Ireland): September.

A SENIOR Minister has called for a rerun of the referendum on parliamentary inquiries to ensure there is a proper investigation into the banking collapse.

Minister for Energy and Communications Pat Rabbitte said yesterday that he would like to see the issue put before the people again in a calm and considered manner.

“I am in favour of the Government seeking to run again a referendum that would give a parliamentary committee the proper investigative powers to get to the bottom of what happened in the banks.

Badum…

He added that Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, chairman of the PAC, was probably the wrong person to head an inquiry into the banking collapse. The Minister said the public would have concerns about a former Fianna Fáil minister being in charge of the inquiry.

Tish!

Rabbitte Urges New Referendum On Powers Of Inquiry (Stephen Collins, Irish Times)

(Laura Hutton, Photocall Ireland)