This afternoon.
TDs voted in the Dáil 97-18 to add 30 seconds of silent reflection to the daily Dáil prayer, which is said in English and Irish at the start of each day’s proceedings. There were 18 abstentions.
TDs will also have to stand during this period.
They also voted on three amendments which were all defeated.
The amendments went as follows (from top):
An amendment proposed by Sinn Féin called for TDs to stand for 60 seconds of silent reflection at the start of each day’s business was defeated by 94 votes to 41.
A Solidarity/People Before Profit proposal for TDs to abolish the prayer being said at the start of each day’s Dáil business was defeated 97 votes to 15 with 20 abstentions.
A proposal from Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Joan Collins to replace the daily prayer with 30 seconds of silent reflection was also defeated by 96 votes to 19, with 17 abstentions.
There you go, now.
Amendments to scrap Dáil prayer defeated as silent reflection added (RTE)
UPDATE:
Who voted how…
Via Oireachtas.ie
Praise be the Lord.
My heart lifts to see that the members of our Oireachtas have their eyes firmly on the essentials. Forget fraud and corruption. Forget hunger and homelessness. Forget our shambolic health and justice systems. At least they can stand for ‘the Dail prayer’.
Sure they’ve nothing better to do than vote on what is essentially male dog genitalia
haha!
Also phew – I thought it was d’Angelus they were voting for. But then that would be something that affects the people of the country……
*Stares off into the distance*
BONG!
And these religious zealots are telling us not to worry about the NMH and the sisters of mercy.
Modern Ireland is dead and gone…….
Yeah! Gas isn’t it?
Oh no wait…it’s fupping scary.
It arrived in 1990 and only stayed for a while.
this effing country.
Did anyone honestly expect any other outcome?
there seems to be such a glaring chasm between the elected representatives of the people and the actual people
*and the actual readers of this website.
We, the people?
Can we have a list of who these weirdos are? I mean, wtf! This is just plain bizarre.
well those voted in tend to canvass outside mass, go to funerals and shake hands with mourners ( I saw a sitting TD do it at my uncles funeral last year). God sells!
…at least we know where the Dail sits on the question of separation of church and state but I am starting to believe that the country has moved on…the furore over handing a maternity hospital to the nuns, the surprise votes from the peoples assembley, the marriage equality vote…
I’m not sure the CA vote was a surprise to many people apart from maybe those TDs
…it was a surprise to me…if the sample was to reflect the population then even the latest CSO figure which gives 78% of the population professing to be catholic would indicate an expectation that the percentages for and against the motion would be reversed…
But religion was not supposed to be part of the remit, was it?
– Was it?
Tell us everything.
Declare your allegiance. We know who you work for… Just give us their names and you can walk out of here a free man*.
*Not a free woman. Don’t be ridiculous… There’s no such thing as a free woman.
I think the Dail is actually some kind of portal back into the 1980’s.
FG and FF TDs are so far behind public opinion on so many issues it’s embarrasing. The CA was a revelation in that their careful and considered look at abortion was such a contrast to so many cowardly governements over the years.
Remember, FG only jumped on the Marriage Equality bandwagon when they saw which way the wind was blowing all around the country – after massive efforts from grass roots campaigners. FF were conservative to the hilt in that campaign, and in hindsight, were worse than useless.
How about we get rid of the shower in the Dail and stick with the CA on a full time basis?!
60s
Let us progress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-86FuhEaQQ
@Grace – great comment, you’re dead right. Is it a case of waiting for that shower to die out or are their youth parties the same again?
It really is so depressing.
If it wasnt proposed by PbP or the shinners it may have gotten through. Ireland cannot allow even small victories to the extreme fascist left.
What a bunch of morons.
ahem
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/04/08/without-a-prayer/
one that didn’t make the Contributor Archives
but still
We see you, you religious creeps.
First politician to use the 30 seconds to dab gets my vote.
Disgraceful.
To think that these ladyparts pray before they sin every time they’re in the Dail.
The religious orders should’ve objected. Although they’re probably all the same.
Can someone claim ot be a devil worshipper and demand everyone joins them in a refrain of “Hail Satan!” or does everyone have to convert to Catholicism?
but they are devil worshippers
Sinn Fein abstaining to preserve the religious vote, nice one.
Labour voting in favour of it even worse!
They sold out a long time ago.
Labour need all the help they can get. Praying is about their last hope.
…I know a good few shinners…even a few of the so-called dissidents…I’ve never met an atheist shinner…
So, what’s your point?
SF waiting to see how the media plays this vote.
Once liveline is over tomorrow they’ll decide which way they should’ve voted and how it was all the Govt & FF’s fault.
I think it’s more a preservation of tradition, rather than an endorsement of RC’ism. I would be a Sinn Féin type, RC in my upbringing and atheist following my Fourth Sacrament, it’s unlikely that I’ll receive Holy Orders – I haven’t been married and I clearly haven’t died. 4 out of 7 scores me still RC . I haven’t been excommunicated (as far as I know). I would tend to respect others in their tradition, so why not here? Cynicism is a tool used by educated types, who should know better. And in the words of Dave Allen, “May your god be with you!”.
Shayna…
Are you Shayna from BOTV on Youtube Comments from last Thursday? The one who fell apart when Mike took off his glasses, and subsequently disoriented me so much that I fabricated a fake nervous breakdown for no reason because nobody was watching?
It was YOU, wasn’t it?
Stop the messing.
I know where he lives. We should meet up IRL, just me and you, just after the last bus has left the city…
It’s not a question of cynicism, though. A prayer has no place in the Dáil. Prayer and belief should be personal and private. Government should be free from religion.
The cynicism was aimed at the previous commenters. Show me a Government that isn’t entirely free from religion? Skandic type countries? I’m just re-iterating, it’s merely a tradition is all. At my father’s wake, my kid sister asked me to lead the Rosary, despite her knowing I was Atheist.
France, to take the most obvious example; it is expressly forbidden to mix church and state there.
It’s a tradition of oppression.
If those who want to preserve a tradition of praying for guidance want to do so, let them do it just prior to start of business. Not on the clock, and not holding up everyone else’s work just so they can pose as some sort of moral figures.
There’s zero justification for requiring everyone to join in. Compulsory religious rituals have no place in a democracy. Even some of the thickest clowns in the Dáil actually know that, but they don’t care.
They’re doing this as signalling to a certain base that they’re ‘standing up for the faith’. It’s nothing to do with actual faith, otherwise they’d be heeding Matthew 6:5 which warns against praying in public prayer for the purpose of being seen, and called such people hypocrites.
Of course, a different author, a certain Mr. Machiavelli urged the powerful to cloak themselves with religion. Not hard to see which book they’re following more closely here.
+1
+1
SO Sinn Fein stood idly by. Makes sense since they never gave those murdered and dumped into unmarked graves the benefit of the last rites.
I sense your comment is directed towards me?
Sinn Fein are the party of choice for the fundamentalist RC.
I know the brother of one of the “Disappeared”. Oliver McVeigh is a well-known photographer for sport and news throughout Ireland, most notably his GAA shots from Croke Park. His brother, Columba was “disappeared” in 1975, for reasons unknown. I think that, perhaps people who know the whereabouts of his “resting place” are themselves deceased, perhaps?
I hate people who name drop
Yikes – then you hate me, a tad un RC of you. I mentioned Columba McVeigh, he’s still “disappeared”, any mention of his name in press/blogs may help – an anonymous tip to the Gardaí/PSNI – I’m confident the McVeigh family would appreciate.
Where’s Donnelly on that list? I presume he voted with FF, but his names not there. Or am I going mad?