00090942Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan

The Bishop of Galway appears to have rowed back on his strong stance on the St Vincent de Paul (SVP) donation towards a gay resource centre, telling a member of the public that he “got it badly wrong”.

There have been calls for Dr Martin Drennan to resign in the wake of his comments on Galway Bay FM last week about the €45,000 allocation to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community support group Amach.

He described gay culture as “morally wrong” and said he had a problem with the “moral judgment” involved with making the decision by the SVP.

Salthill resident Cormac Ryan wrote an email to the Bishop after hearing the interview, describing his remarks as “deeply offensive, uncharitable and unchristian”.

A reply the following day from the Diocesan email address, which was also sent to the Bishop’s Diocesan secretary, thanked him for the letter.

“My humble apologies for the hurt caused. I got it badly wrong,” it said.

Vice chairperson of Amach, Nuala Ward, invited the Bishop to sit down and talk with the organisation to discuss their work, which involved collaborating with bodies such as the Health Service Executive, the Gardaí and suicide prevention groups.

Meanwhile..

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Tackling poverty is what the SVP does best. But Galway LGBT Amach! is a campaigning organisation. It even helped promote a pro-abortion march in Galway last year. That’s the opposite of reaching out to the poor and marginalised.

And it’s not as though left-wing, liberal causes are stuck for money these days. When it comes to friends in the media and funds from millionaires, gay rights projects are top dogs, not underdogs.

Did SVP Galway ask Amach! whether it would be campaigning for the redefinition of marriage next year? Might its resource centre and facilities be used in that referendum?

It’s a strange thing, but heaven help you if you dare to regret using the poor box to fund a campaigning gay rights organisation.

Update:

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Enda Cunningham [of the Connacht Tribune] writes:

Purely in the interest of balance, there is actually a third piece [above] in the Tribune today – it’s from Nuala Ward, Vice Chair of Amach LGBT.

Bishop of Galway says he got it ‘badly wrong’ (Denise McNamara, Galway City Tribune)

Previously: How Dare They?

Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWDZ350laUQ

VFX shenanigizer Joey Shanks celebrates the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters by attempting to recreate the proton streams from the film.

And why wouldn’t he?

(Thanks Joey)

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A perfect ice cast of the surface of a magnolia tree leaf peeled off (and quickly snapped before it melted) after a day of freezing rain a few winters ago at the Hardin Gardens on the campus of Winthrop University in South Carolina by Redditor SearonTrejorek.

twistedsifter

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Miriam Moriarty Owens writes:

I really need to share this and hope you all share it as well [about] what I had to witness yesterday [Thursday]. I was on the number 40 bus from Tralee to Cork to visit my sister [in hospital]. The bus stopped to pick up passengers in Ballyvourney en route. A few people got on. I did notice a very old man. He was carrying a bag. He really did not look well. I would say he was in his early 80s. He was the colour of, well, to but it bluntly, he looked as if he was dying. He sat two rows behind me. About 5 mins later he started to get very sick. What I had to witness and hear has really upset me. I am still very upset. The lynch mob – mostly women – started shouting, ‘get him off the bus’. There was no smell and a woman put newspapers down. He kept saying he was sorry. I was upset for him. But some of the passengers just would not stop [saying] ‘Driver get him off the bus’.

Then the bus stopped in Macroom to pick up more passengers. The driver came down and told him to get off the bus. ‘Go on,’ he said, ‘get off’. I stood up and asked him what he was doing. ‘He cant stay here,’ [the bus driver said]. ‘No,’ I said, ‘the people who don’t want him on the bus are the ones you should get off. He needs to get to a hospital.’ We were only 20 minutes away from one. I tried to ask him his name [but] all I got out of him was Dan Joe. I asked [if] I could phone anyone for him. ‘I have no one,’ he says. ‘Go home’, they were shouting at him. I got very upset.

I said to the driver, ‘if we were sick on a plane, would the pilot throw us off?’ ‘That’s a different matter,’ he replied. The driver should have waited and phoned an ambulance for him. Not a humane bone in his body. [Later] as I got off the bus, I turned around and said ‘I hope you all sleep well tonight, you should be ashamed of yourselves.’ That’s caring Ireland for you [in] 2014. I have reported this matter to Bus Éireann.

Thanks John Murray

Miriam Moriarty Owens (Facebook)

UPDATE:

Miriam writes:

Dan Joe is ok. He had severe food poisoning. He went to the hospital and is home safe. Bus Éireann just rang me apologising about the incident I had to witness and made it clear this is not the way if anybody feels unwell. Every driver has a duty of care to every passenger. They are very upset about this whole matter and are dealing with it urgently. I want to thank each and one of you for all your kind messages. A happy ending, Dan Joe is well.

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