Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FIANNA FÁIL SENATOR Jim Walsh has resigned from the parliamentary party this afternoon after expressing his opposition to sections of the Children and Family Relationships Bill, which is currently going through the Seanad.
The bill extends guardianship and adoption rights to, among others, same sex couples and updates the law to bring clarity to the status of children born through assisted human reproduction methods.
Walsh is opposing 36 sections of the bill and has tabled an amendment calling for IVF methods to be primarily made available to married heterosexual couples.
Speaking in the Dáil today, he said there are “many gaps” in the legislation, particularly in the area of allowing children born via sperm donation or similar methods to know the health history of their biological parents.
In his resignation letter Walsh said he would also be tabling and pressing amendments to the Marriage Equality Bill, citing his “deeply held and conscientious opinions”:
A Fianna Fáil spokesperson confirmed that Walsh met with party leader Micheál Martin this morning, adding:
It was clear that his position is not where his party is at in relation to the bill and he resigned.
Wexford-based Walsh is known for his conservative views on social issues having opposed civil partnership legislation in 2009 and the abortion legislation that moved through the Oireachtas nearly two years ago.
He remains a member of Fianna Fáil but is now outside the parliamentary party.
He is the second Fianna Fáil senator to relinquish the party whip within the last four months after Mark Daly’s opposition to the Water Services Bill saw him automatically forfeit the whip last December.
Speaking on the Marriage Equality Bill in the Seanad yesterday, Walsh said he believed encouraging gay people to believe “sameness” could be achieved would only cause them “more harm than good”.
Opposing the proposed change to the Constitution to allow same-sex couples to get married, he said he believed the move would change “the definition and conception of family”.
As marriage currently protects the natural ties between mothers, fathers and their children, he said “changing marriage removes that protection”.
Walsh did not immediately respond to TheJournal.ie‘s request for comment.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I remember being locked on the Ha’penny bridge before…
excellent. My big laugh for today………
Could have done with reading this article a few years ago, could have saved a few quid on an eternity ring.
A stupid “tradition” that seems to have started on the Pont des Arts in Paris and has now spread all over the place. Do something useful with your money instead. Or give it to me.
Or preferably me
ah booo! you’re no fun!
Would be cynical of me to suggest that maybe this “tradition” was started by padlock manufacturers?
I think if they were left there they were going to be subject to the controversial new padlock/love tax.
Finally! I walk over the Ha’penny at least twice a day and these locks have indeed been an eyesore. Pointless and useless, I am delighted that they have been removed. The Ha’penny is far too lovely to be covered in locks.
The locks would cause the paint on the bridge to chip off, allowing rust to cause damage
Holy mother of god, a rare photo of a council worker working..
And a smile, but to be fair what you can’t see a few feet away from him is a group of 5 Council Workers standing with a shovel watching him
Quick Romance. Kill IT.
Pat is a man who enjoys his work
The locks are a nice idea but they are distracting the aesthetic beauty of the bridges design,
Thought they where for locking the Roma for begging as these bridges are usually maned by Roma beggars each day.Hope they are next to be removed as they Are eye sore too
Roma? Whenever I cross it’s Irish beggars. They must take turns.
careful micheal your perilously close to getting an ear full off the bulshit do gooder brigade!!……… i agree insidently
not a penny in the kitty and they can send a team out to cut down harmless tokens of love
Selling them for scrap value
Ah well……we’ll just have to go back to carving our initials on trees…benches….desks etc.
Somebody just didn’t get enough hugs as a child…
Cutting them down is probably going to see an explosion in love locks….. saw a bridge in Russia covered in locks, it looked fantastic.
Perhaps. But the Ha’penny would look ridiculous covered in padlocks.
For why would they take them down? It’s incredibly romantic – I tells ya, the City Council has no heart.
There is obviously too much drinking going on in Dublin. Even the bridges get locked. Ouch. Sorry.
Handcuffs be better or a ball & chain
Or a Engelbert Humperdinck CD of “Please Release Me….”
And here it is!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZO9xeYA8g
Aww shucks.. wasn’t love great! :-)
He removed photographs :O
Typo fixed now! Cheers for heads up.
P.S apologies if I appeared to be a but of a spelling Nazi! I hate them.
i think you mean bit
F**k.
1 – 0
There used to be two old coins welded/glued to the underside of the railing in the centre of the Ha’penny bridge, I always thought they were an interesting talking point, unobtrusive and harmless, they weren’t there after the refurbishment :(
What a waste of a good padlock. Locks and chains belong attached to the overpaid officials and speculators who wrecked the country – chain ‘em up and chuck ‘em in the Liffey. Claddagh rings for lovers are nicer.
He looks a little too happy about it!! aw such a shame, i think its a lovely idea!!! :) <3
This should have gone to a referendum. Those locks were privately owned, the council had right to take them down…
*no right
are you serious? or just a little touched in the head?
That’s actually kind of sad, I interrailed last summer and every city I went to had them on famous landmarks. I thought it was a sweet idea.
So essentially these padlocks are a form of sentimental metal fungus infecting European landmarks? That’s what it sounds like.
Or just a symbolic gesture of love that looks quite pretty… I admit, I am a creature of sentiment.
Are they going to cut the locks off the Grand Canal as well?
instead of spending money on love locks ,and donate the money to charity of there choice,this will make you feel better and also those who benefit from it
I walk over the hapenny bridge at least once a week and NEVER even noticed them……..sure what harm are they doing. Answer the council better to use taxpayers money by cleaning graffiti off walls or better still spend the money doing essential works to the flats in Dolphins Barn and Mercer House who have serious issues with moulde, damp, and old leaking rusty pipes (in the case of Mercer House these pipes are70 years old) that result in the flooding of homes.
just put locks on mercer house then
Anyone up for setting up a padlocking campaign to annoy Dublin City Council???
To be fair, removing the pad-locks is a form of work so I see it as job creation and people are spending their hard-earned money on pad-locks and spendign is what the government wants so…what is the problem?
also remember to use irish made padlocks and buy them in a local store.
hope this people react and go and put more locks on it, I think they looked pretty cool
get a few kryptonite locks up there
Looks like the teenagers will now have to go back to graffiti or carving their names into trees and park benches.
Saw this also on the bridge in Logroño in northern Spain, it’s quite cute…
Dirty padlock photos! :)
meh, stick the locks on the millennium bridge instead or something, the haypenny needs to be protected methinks
This truely is no joy Ireland!!
Why did they remove some from the Millenium Bridge, they’re hardly going to be an eyesore on that!! Speaking of which, does anyone remember when the millenium bridge used to make noises as you walked on it, like nature sounds and stuff?
Seems a bit cheesy to do something like this, in my personal opinion.
“I love you Stacey” (Random name) “So I put a padlock on a bridge!!”
Staceys possible response: “…..eh.. right how romantic. Rob, we’re finished. You’re just way too weird”.
most of the people who put these locks on the bridge will probably break up eventually show your commitment by getting married
Marriage is like a bath. After awhile, it’s not so hot.
Putting a Padlock on a bridge as an expression of your undying love for each other, what a load of bollox.
500 Padlocks? Hmmmmmm….no….but would like to buy an Electronic Voting Machine!
police state
Oh I dunno. Hardly oppression to remove an eyesore from a protected structure just because a couple of moon eyed lovers decide they want follow the same sentimental bovine nonsense tradition of defacing a national landmark with a padlock. Just sayin’.
@Gay Dave – To be a police state you’d need something a bit more, how can I put it, Police-like, than the Garda Siochana. Try and conjure up a mental picture of Stalinist Russia with gardai, it doesn’t quite work, does it?
Killjoy State I would go along with!
The mental image of Stalin & gardai was my laugh for the day!
What is the HARM, ITS very social, DCC are just spoil sports, Lovers Locks are very common here in Valencia and in Spain in general and People love to examine the NAMES on them. In these HARD Days in Ireland I think the LOCKS are a positive symbol of LOVE and COMMITMENT. LET THEM STAY.
Anyone wanna buy 500 padlocks?!!
Stupid waste of money tbh
The locks or the removal?
You’ll all be just fine, couples. Just remember to shout when you’re throwing out the feet water. Yes. Don’t get on the bad side of the gentry.
How happy is pat
I people want to do it then why not have a purpose built “blank” sculpture and leave the bridges alone? it’d be brilliant, it would look amazing when it was completely covered in locks!
As an executive decision right up there with fiddling while Rome burns. Do they not have more to be doing?
Maybe the council should follow the lead of places such as Moscow, and install ‘lovescapes’ where people can legally ‘lock their love’ without damaging existing structures and without the risk of removal! The Luzhkov bridge in Moscow has the most beautiful row of lock trees on the bridge over the canal and has become famous for it, driving tourists from all over the world!
They should see this as an opportunity! See http://www.lovelocksuk.com- the specialists in this stuff in Europe!
Oh no ! In a few years they will be chucking the padlocks at each other …… :) Nuts !
That would never happen on the virtual version of this very sweet tradition ! … Feel free to visit : http://www.thelovegrid.com
I agree Bridget….why spoil peoples fun… even a blank canvas (so to speak) would be perfect….my last comment admittedly was a little “Tongue & Cheek”! And…. a box for struggling Charities beside it might work, so more Love can be spread.
I like Padlock of Love but I am opposed to destroying nature because of those padlock people.
Also, I feel vulgar when I see rusted padlock and padlock that were ignored for long time.
There is a good way to share friendship among the people around the world.
I am Jungnam from South Korea.
You can just think that the original Padlock of Love is moved online.
The e-Love’s Padlock I made is to protect the nature and making people to love each other.
e-Love’s Padlock >> http://thevow.co.kr
Neil Murphy who wanted a spire built from the “Electronic Voting Machines has just given me another idea….anyway Lovers Locks can be attached to these Machines?
I like Padlock of Love but I am opposed to destroying nature because of those padlock people.
Also, I feel vulgar when I see rusted padlock and padlock that were ignored for long time.
There is a good way to share friendship among the people around the world.
I am Jungnam from South Korea.
You can just think that the original Padlock of Love is moved online.
The e-Love’s Padlock I made is to protect the nature and making people to love each other..
e-Love’s Padlock ▶ http://thevow.co.kr
You know Bernard Andre (sorry about accent missing on e)…. liked your link. If we think around the box, over the bridge or whatever….this could be the greatest money spinner ever to make up the short fall in the kitty. All we have to do is have a tasteful & I stress tasteful (not an eyesore) “Love Grid” in designated central areas, shops selling special locks like the National Lotto sells tickets & every tourist or indeed people at home “In Love” is going to want to be photographed in front of it with their own personalised lock. While we are at it, why don’t we go a step further & design some machine that can print out a dozen or so postcards of them so they can profess their Love to their friends at home or abroad. Locks, Postcards, Stamps….????
lover should Pad lock each other fLY’S for long lasting love lol
NO THEY SHOULDN’T BE REMOVED
I’ve just given a padlock from my tools to a couple who were looking for a hardware shop to buy one. Of course I told them it wouldn’t be open at this time but it seemed to mean alot to them. I didn’t question them but told them more than once that I thought it was a waste of time, telling them the locks are removed periodically. They were delighted with it, I helped make them hapoy. Who cares if they are removed next week?!
have your say