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PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins is back on Irish soil after his historic visit to the United Kingdom.
The President’s plane touched down in Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel shortly after 6pm this evening to conclude four-days of official events that marked the first trip by an Irish President to the UK.
President Higgins’ final official event took place in Coventry this afternoon where he spoke to members of the Irish community in the west-midlands city and visited Coventry Cathedral.
Speaking before he left for Ireland this afternoon, the President said that he felt there was a certain honesty about shared history that shone through during the course of his visit.
“It confirmed to me that we weren’t just going through the motions of a formal visit but that there was a great interest in carrying things forward. We discussed necessity of being continually vigilant.”
Both sides emphasised a very honest version of the past. There was no attempt in any of the the speeches from either side to effect some kind of amnesia that wouldn’t have authenticity. It was a facing up to the fact that you do have different versions of similar events.
“We’re not required to be sentimental about each other all of the time. What we know is that we love having a laugh at each other but it’s even more important to have a laugh at yourselves, ” he added later when once again touching on the subject of openness.
The President was also asked about the invitation that was extended and accepted to members of the British Royal Family to participate in the commemorations of the 1916 Rising.
He said that he felt that shared grief is a part of the process.
“The presence of commemorations as organised by the Irish government are matters for the Irish Government but I haven’t the slightest difficulty in recognising shared grief, in recognising the personal actions are based on ethics of the highest kind.”
President Higgins also acknowledged the significance of the presence of Norther Ireland First Minister Martin McGuinness at the banquet at Windsor Castle on Tuesday:
It was very important that all of those who were invited by their hosts participated fully in all of the events. I think that we would only have to speculate, as your good selves would have in the media, of what it would have been like if we were here at the end of a visit and we were explaining absences rather than presences.
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If I was a leper I would be outraged by that remark !
Still they should be allowed to marry.
The Irish media would like us to believe, that child abuse only occurs within the Catholic Church. Sadly not true. It occurs at all levels & professions in society.
A massive child abuse scandal involving senior politicians and celebrities, has been uncovered in Britain. A paedophile ring may have been operating from Westminster since the 1970′s.
The British establishment supposedly knew – & tried to cover it up. This story if true, will shake British society to its very foundations.
The Irish media have been very quiet on this one – strange since it is such a major story.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/margaret-thatcher-personally-covered-up-3848836
Zoe the reason why Irish media has been quite is probably because it is a British matter for British media.
The Catholic Church has a case to answer no amount of deflection will change that.
You’re right Zoe. The Catholic Church leaves them to rot in a septic tank.
and no amount of media cover up will deflect from the Westminster story.
The truth will come out, sooner or later (just like it did with the Church) – and the Irish media will have to report on it. It can’t be ignored any longer.
Zoe if the Irish media reports on the matter it still does not detract from the fact the Catholic Church still has a case to answer.
Will the Vatican ever hand over the files to the UN as requested?
Will Brady ever be sacked for forcing children to take an oath of silence?
Harriet Harman & Patricia Hewitt are senior British Labour politicans. In the 1970′s they were involved with the Civil ‘Liberties’ human rights group.
This group was affiliated to the ‘Paedophile Information Exchange’ or PIE – a ‘civil rights’ group that campaigned for the full legalisation & acceptance of paedophilia. Hewitt later apologised but Harman remains a senior Labour politician to this day. PIE may even have received government funding in the 70′s.
There is a horrendous ‘can of worms’ opened in Britain in the past few days. It appears that child abuse was happening & accepted in many parts of British society – right to the top of the political establishment.
The truth will have to come out eventually, But it is clear that child abuse is more than an issue that just affects the Catholic Church. If we are serious about addressing this problem – it has to be addressed in all areas of society. Not just in religion, but in families, politics, celebrity culture etc.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/westminster-abuse-inquiry-i-found-rent-boys-to-entertain-top-tory-politicians-in-the-1980s-claims-former-party-activist-9602754.html
Zoe here’s a geography lesson for you we live in Ireland where Catholic priests raped, murdered tortured children.
I have every believe the British authorities will deal effectively with the people responsible for the abuse of children.
fully agree Mike – the Catholic Church have a case to answer & their crimes should be brought to justice.
But we have to be fair.
If we hold the Church to account – then society has to also hold other perpetrators to account also.
Child abuse has to be equally addressed in all areas of society.
2% bishops priests and cardinals are paedophiles . What does this mean exactly ? Are these proven paedophiles ? Are they in ministry ? Where are they ? How many victims are known about ? How many have they reported to the authorities ? What body came up with these figures ? So many questions and so few answers . We could start looking at statistics gathered on abuse in the states to get some ideas of the scale of the problem http://archives.weirdload.com/stats.html
If 2% of the worlds catholic population was abused that would mean approx 48 million. Since children account for approx 25% of world popul with a conservative estimate that 1 in 4 kids gets abused I estimate a hefty figure of 3 million kids abused by clerics worldwide.
ZOE comes out with this bullshite every time there is an article about clerical abuse. ZOE tries to justify the Church’s abuse and cover up of these crimes to protect those responsible. There are peodphiles in all society and that is for sure but this happened in a so called church!! And this church hid the crimes and allowed children to be abused for years. So ZOE you go stick your excuses up yer lying windpipe.
The Irish press and media completely ignored the satanic ritual murder connections in the Marc Dutroux murders !??
http://www.sra-ireland.freepress-freespeech.com/MarcDutrouxmurders.htm
So if if there are paedophile cardinals is it conceivable that one became a pope ? After all there have been popes who actively covered up abuse in their careers , namely JPII and Ratzinger.
Zoe great that your showing concern for justice and investigation of child abuse in the UK . Pity however you have been less enthusiastic in your posts demanding justice for those abused by the church here in Ireland . In fact from most of your posts that I read you seemed more concerned with protecting the church than supporting the survivors. In any event It’s good to see proper investigation are taking place in the UK . I do hope they look further into savilles relations with the political elite and with Britain’s disgraced CATHOLIC CARDINAL Keith .O’Brien . What an embarrassment that the they even gave devout catholic Jimmy a knight hood
The catholic church’s figures are a little skewed . How many Christian brothers are there in the world and how many of them are pardophiles ? They don’t get a mention by the pope .
Garth had nothing to do with any of this
Long live the Catholic Church !!!!!!!
1087 parish priests in Ireland for every parish and 26 diocesan bishops . If you add them up together And take the Vatican’s word on figures there are a min of 22 paedophile Clerics ( not including Christian brothers , monks etc .) currently in Ireland that the church know about. Who are they ? And where are they? I suspect the actual number is higher if you add in the other types of clerics.
This pope’s the most progressive in a long time but the dissension in the ranks is growing, don’t really know why I care.
Frank ;
Let’s make this simple shall we ?
A full list of all Vatican bank account holders !
An on-line website with all the documents in the Vatican library !
A list of all suspected paedophiles within your organisation to be handed over to the authorities of the relevant countrys.
Good lad !
Yours Faithfully,
ETC.
We’ll take it from there ..
Solutions? Either remove it or get them some prostitutes.
What a disgusting comment. Sad really .
Disgusting or sad hmmm … Disgusting and sad !!
Comments are not disgusting. Words can’t hurt people. Sex-starved priests, on the other hand, can and do.
excellent point Neal …you left out Bishops who turn secrets into Gold and who don’t deal with the problem are complicit !
Please remove thus disgusting comment
Same sex marriage let them marry each other
PR Pope and his predecessor is a cover up merchant.Sorry but the Vatican have no credibility and are still shielding criminals from justice. Talk is cheap actions speak louder than words but don’t hold your breath! Same teachings,same dogmas,same mantras,same delusions,same hypocrisy,same atrocities.
People are waking up to the nonsense of organised religion with silly old men in costumes preaching “morality” from pulpits of corruption and pious delusion.
Look what religion requires you to believe! Can anyone honestly say they’d believe it as an adult if it wasn’t indoctrinated on them as a child? Strange the biggest zealots always have the strictest upbringing or a tragic early life event!
Look how the Zealots defend the indefensible! It’s sickening!
Just wondering JPS.. Did u go to Catholic school.. Or are your family believers or atheists… I am curious thats all
Sinead I was educated in a Catholic primary school had a confirmation etc(never truly believed in the stories etc ,I’ve a very scientific mind even at an early age)
Didn’t have an overly religious family attended mass(under protest) until teenage years.
Growing up and realising the Crimes committed by the Church and realising how so many defend the indefensible because of indoctrinated faith,and the whole ridiculousness of the logic of religion helped free my mind of any indoctrinated software and allowed for free thinking and as I further my education the tales of religion got relegated to mythology.
Bar my indoctrinated 87year old grandmother I wouldn’t say anyone else in my immediate family are practising Catholics some Cultural Catholics attend weddings christening etc but doubt they truly believe and a few athiests like myself.
JPS.. Thanks for answering my question. I suppose my own school years and yours arent too different. I dont recall any interest or being influenced by my religious education in school. Kinda boring in fact. I rebelled a lot against Catholicism in my teenage years.
But where your mind is scientific my heart was always aching for something and thats when i found God. We are all looking for answers and we find them in different places.
Regarding the article above you say that talk is cheap and that is true. Pope Francis has done plenty of talking and more action is needed. A lot more…
VIP passes to Lapellos
Frank rushes into Benedict’s chambers screaming “Bad News Benny, Bad news !”
“”what , what is it ?” says Benny
” the Universe , life, everything – God made the whole thing up !”
Good Theater Dermot but you just made it up!
This desperate pontiff is capable of promising absolutely anything, he’s the most desperate Bishop of Rome since Juliain Divine XXV1 in 1143.
Oh sorry Frank,
One other thing ; remove those priests bishops and god knows what else that are practicing Satanic masses in the Vatican and if that includes yourself then leave as well !
And Lombardi has to go with immediate effect !
I am going to presume that everyone who red-thumbs the above comment is a Satanist !
Zoe, you are correct in relation to Irish media.
They are not impartial they don’t want to publish news articles that do not fit in with their blinkered agenda.
They have successfully ensured that the silent majority, who formerly bought a daily newspaper, no longer do so. People vote with their expenditure. Eventually they will realize the reality when the are no longer on payroll.
We are fortunately not any longer confined to Irish media for our information.
So 900 years after Jesus’s death till now isn’t long enough to see if celibacy in the church works or not. If I was thinking of going into the priesthood I certainly wouldn’t be holding my breath. It’s my limited understanding that priests are wed to God or Christ or something like that. Personally I’ve nothing against gay marriage, if it’s what they want, but then who am I to dictate to others. But who knows maybe God’s a woman or even a hermaphrodite.
The catholic religion is a farce.. There’s nothing in the bible about people who spread the word of god should be celibate, that’s the Vaticans doing to save them money..
The bible is actually against celibacy and spells it out very clearly,
Timothy 4
4 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 FORBIDDING TO MARRY, AND COMMANDING TO ABSTAIN FROM MEATS, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving
My least favourite Pope was Adrian Breakspear !
Solution, allow / encourage normal human behaviour.
Couldn’t the Catholic Church ease itself slowly out of the celibacy rule by just letting priests get it on with the nuns and each other for a start.
That would protect a that Church Property and wealth which is the real reason for the celibacy rule.
2%. Thats fuc¤in higher than I’d have figured.
They must have actual names and dates of incidents if the can quantify it like that
Paddy, surely you’ve got something to say on this one ???
have your say