Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

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Paul Clarkson, (above) editor of The Irish Sun and Roy Greenslade, (top) media commentator and Guardian columnist discussed on Morning Ireland with Gavin Jennings the decision to omit topless shots from page 3.

It’s all a Protestant/Catholic thing, apparently.

Gavin Jennings: “When he says that “The Irish ain’t British” to quote you Paul and that there are cultural differences which are behind this decision, what do you understand by that?”

Roy Greenslade: “Well I can only think it’s a reference to ah religion em..”

Jennings: “Sorry, Paul is it?”

Greenslade: “It’s going to be very embarrassing in the Six Counties at the top of this country where there are lots and lots of people of a similar religion and they are still going to get Page 3 so I don’t know what the Sun is going to do about that? Em, it also is interesting isn’t it to suggest that em Protestants quite like having em Page 3 and Catholics don’t, rather interesting thing in the debate”

Jennings: “Paul, do you want to answer that?”

Paul Clarkson: “Well as I was trying to say it’s not really about religion. As I say, there is certainly a Catholic guilt in the Republic that people have grown up with but that’s only a small part…”

Jennings: “No Protestant guilt in the North, is that right?”

Clarkson: “No, but in the UK, especially our readers in Northern Ireland they’re very much more aligned to the UK paper and they actually are very, identify themselves strongly as British. As well, we’d have a much larger em sort of Protestant…”

Jennings: “So are you saying that strongly identifying yourself as British means that you’ve got less of a problem with topless pictures on Page 3, really?”

Clarkson: “Well, this is from talking to our readers. We’ve talked to our readers and in Ireland they do have a hangup and it’s part of what makes…Ireland Irish. They do have a problem with it and it’s certainly more prevalent in Ireland than it is in the UK where they very strongly, their readers have come out and say “We want page 3 to stay”.

Listen here.

Scroll to around 06:45.

TIANTIAN-11_s.jpg_535760317

Although it is still early days, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), can reveal that we are not ruling out that female panda Tian Tian may be pregnant.

A second hormone rise in progesterone levels was detected in Tian Tian on 15th July, and then confirmed on Wednesday 7th August, which indicates she may be pregnant or experiencing a pseudo pregnancy; this means that in around 40 to 55 days Tian Tian will either give birth to a cub or her false pregnancy will end. If there is a cub, it could be born between late August and early September.

Twin panda cubs for Fota?

Any excuse.

Panda Update: Definitely Maybe! (Edinburgh Zoo)

Previously: This Changes Everything

Pic: Rob McDougall

 

 

But but…remember this?

Arroyo: “What was the reaction to the march last week? You didn’t tell us. Edna Kenny is now saying what..Enda. I keep saying Edna like Dame Edna. Edna Kenny says what?”

O’Domhnaill: “He has this, he has this serious worry because with a turnout like that all of a sudden it sends a shiver through the government, the main party in government em Fine Gael. And an awful lot of their TDs, which would be like their senators, congressmen whatever, they’re turning around and saying hang on you know..”

Arroyo: “Maybe we should shelve this baby..?”

O’Domhnaill: “This is something which should be kicked down the road a bit. There’s a serious risk in the marginal constituencies we could take a serious beating because the the the people who went to the rally and all the people out there beyond who are on LinkedIn, facebook and all that kind of stuff, they’re all signing a pledge. The pro-life pledge is they will not vote ever for anyone who votes for legislation to legalise abortion, right. So you’re talking about you know say in, if you look at the 30,000. That probably represents about 600,000 votes, right. That is an enormous, an enormous power surge em and if you take it away from one party, they’re finished you know. And they know it. So he’s hoping just to keep his party together.”

Earlier: Issues Of Life And Death

Previously: A Pro-Life Noraid

10/01/2013 Abortion hearings. Pictured Dr Sean O'D

Peter Boylan is being totally disingenuous when he says that a lot of people against the recent abortion Act did not know that the principle of dual effect is respected. Pro-life people are very well educated about these extremely important issues of life and death.

I wish the same could be said for the pro-Aborts. Fr. Doran was simply stating that the direct intentional killing of a child will not be carried out in the Mater. The Government can provide its own killing fields and its own abortionists.

It appears there are several willing candidates. The EGM of the College of Psychiatry of Ireland in September will have a lot of interesting things to say about the abuse of medical personnel to facilitate unnecessary abortions.

Dr. Boylan is of a Pro-Choice persuasion. He is not an unbiased observer and he was allover the media peddling abortion legislation until suddenly he stopped…and re-emerged as the “independent” expert in the Savita Halappanavar inquiry. Now that is over, he can get back into the game. And, surprise surprise, he is doing so!

Dr Seán Ó Domhnaill, above, of the LIFE Institute.

A response to Dr Peter Boylan (consultant obstetrician and former master of the National Maternity Hospital) on the comments by Father Kevin Doran that abortions could not be performed at the Mater Hospital in Dublin,

CONTEXT: “Would He Prefer For Both Of Them To Die?”

Previously: Dr Seanie, Abortion And The Big C

(Wanderley Massafelli / Photocall Ireland)

9030968317/4/2013 Inquests into the death of Savita Halappanavar

 

Dr Peter Boylan, (above) consultant obstetrician and former master of the National Maternity Hospital gave his reaction this morning to Father Kevin Doran’s comments that abortions could not be performed at the Mater, Dublin, top, because of the hospital’s “ethos”.

Here is some of what Dr Boylan had to say to Newstalk’s Breakfast presenter Shane Coleman:

“Well I suspect that Father Doran is speaking in a rather personal capacity and not representing the views of the hospital and I certainly hope that is the case. The whole purpose of a hospital is to save people’s lives and Father Doran is proposing that a woman in an intensive care unit in the Mater Hospital is denied a life saving operation because it goes against his personal ethos or what he would say is the ethos of the hospital, then that is an extremely disturbing thing to say”.

“You can imagine a scenario, say the Mater, for example is associated with the Rotunda Hospital. So supposing a woman who gets seriously ill is transferred to the intensive care unit in the Mater Hospital and needs a termination in order to save her life, and is Father Doran going to stand by her bedside in the intensive care unit and prevent the doctors from giving the care she needs to save her life? I mean it’s really..it’s just not on.”

“Well I can understand Father Doran’s personal view and one has to respect his personal view but he’s not a doctor and there’s too long of a history of the Catholic Church interfering in the care of women, particularly in the area of reproductive health in this state and they really need to back off and leave it to the doctors. It’s absolutely intolerable that a hospital would deny somebody life-saving treatment in the 21st century in a Western country. It just beggars belief to be honest with you.

Would he prefer for both of them to die? For the baby and the mother to die? A lot of people against this Act miss the point that if the mother dies, the baby dies also. So are they happy to stand by and watch a woman die and be denied life-saving treatment because it goes against their personal beliefs which are not shared by the doctors looking after the woman or by the woman herself or by her family? It really, you know we really need to move on from this sort of interference.”

Listen here

Earlier: Nothing Really Maters

Previously: Right To Reply

Dr Peter Boylan and Breda O’Brien: The Transcript

When Dr Boylan Met Dr Kiely

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

shame

The No More Shame Project launches tonight in the Mariah Black Gallery in the Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork. The project, led by Laura Kinsella, a researcher and activist media producer, and Liz Dunphy, journalist and filmmaker, aims to break the silence of the 12 women who leave Ireland daily to terminate pregnancies. “For too long a culture of silence has choked progress, ensuring continued legal barriers to basic reproductive rights,” says Dr Sandra McEvoy of the department of women’s studies at University College Cork.

Women tell abortion stories as they urge No More Shame (Dan Buckley, Irish Examiner)

No More Shame (Facebook)