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Cardinal Sean Brady Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

McNamara: Cardinal's Christmas message "misrepresented" abortion legislation issue

Labour TD Michael McNamara said that Cardinal Brady misrepresented the legal position within which the Oireachtas is required to legislate.

A LABOUR TD has said that Cardinal Seán Brady’s Christmas message ‘misrepresented’ the legal position within which the Oireachtas is required to legislate for abortion.

Clare Labour TD Michael McNamara expressed his “disappointment that Cardinal Brady took the opportunity of his Christmas message to again misrepresent the legal position within which the Oireachtas is required to legislate, as well as the proposed content of that legislation” this morning.

In his Christmas message yesterday, Cardinal Brady urged Irish people to protest against plans to legislate for abortion.

Deputy McNamara said:

That Constitutional position was set out clearly by Mr Justice McCarthy in the Supreme Court in the X case, as follows: ‘The right of the girl here is a right to a life in being; the right of the unborn is to a life contingent; contingent on survival in the womb until successful delivery. It is not a question of setting one above the other but rather of vindicating, as far as practicable, the right to life of the girl/mother (Article 40, s.3, sub-s. 2), whilst with due regard to the equal light to life of the girl/mother, vindicating, as far as practicable, the right to life of the unborn. (Article 40, s.3, sub-section 3′).’

He reiterated the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter TD’s comments in the Dáil earlier this year, when he said “We are not considering, in any shape or form, abortion on demand as is alleged by some”.

McNamara alleged that it appears Cardinal Brady “ignored that and chooses to ignore the Constitutional position and resultant proposed legislation”.

While I would agree with the Cardinal’s criticisms of the budget, it is worth bearing in mind that 10 years after promising to give the State assets to assist with the cost of redress and support for victims of physical and sexual abuse in religious-run institutions, religious orders had yet to transfer around a fifth of the assets they promised and these assets were to be used by State for the benefit of children.

Abuse redress

McNamara brought up the issue of the deal 18 religious orders struck in 2002 with the then Minister for Education, Fianna Fáil’s Michael Woods, to transfer €128m or property and cash to assist in paying this redress. It has since emerged that that the total cost of providing redress and support to victims is likely to be over €1.36bn.

He said that to bring their contribution up to the 50 per cent level agreed under that indemnity agreement, the bodies which ran residential homes in which residents were abused should pay outstanding costs of around €470 million without further delay.

Deputy McNamara also said that the enormous cost to the State resulting from their failure to transfer assets “should be a particular concern for Cardinal Brady” given his own controversial role in the investigation of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth.

Read: Cardinal’s Christmas message: abortion protests and healing divisions>

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62 Comments
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    Mute Darren Davis
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:16 PM

    Thanks for the recipes. The soup was lovely, I’ll try the compost one for lunch tomorrow

    47
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    Mute Mal
    Favourite Mal
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    Jan 12th 2019, 1:11 PM

    Thanks that does sound simple

    29
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    Mute ianglen
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:23 PM

    Neighbour put out a compost bin last at back of house and the rats had a field day.
    Put it as far away from your house if you can..

    14
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    Mute Brian McCarthy
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:20 PM

    @ianglen: you’re putting the wrong stuff in the composter
    if it’s attracting rats

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    Mute Sean
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:59 PM

    Composting is amazing all right. Did you know that you can get rid of a 1000 pound cow in just six weeks by covering it in eight cubic yards of wood mulch? Basic recipe. Place the carcass on a bed of wood chips 2 feet deep, then cover it to a depth of about 4 feet, with at least 2 feet on the sides.It doesn’t attract flies or vermin or smell. It just disappears! All you are left with is some large bones.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 3:22 PM

    @Sean: How many suburban and town gardeners have got a 1000 pound dead cow to begin with?

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    Mute WoodlandBard
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:18 PM

    @Garreth Byrne: i think this may have started as a Dublin gangster technique that eventually got adapted to farm animals.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 6:59 PM

    @WoodlandBard: I see. So composted dead cows and composted dead gangstas are equally effective in organic vegetable gardening, eh? IOFGA and the Soil Association might have reservations.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:48 PM

    Dampening it down with a bleach mix every so often gets rid of the smell and kills off the yucky bugs and insects

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    Mute Ryan Dub
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:26 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: Do not put bleach in the garden.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:44 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: would you tuck into a nice glass of bleach? If your answer is no, then do not put it on any compost that you intend to use for growing food. Also, if your compost smells that badly it means you’re doing it completely wrong.

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:45 PM

    Yes, how do you keep vermin away from compost heaps, their urine and droppings are bound to infect the compost heap…

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    Mute silentbob2012
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    Jan 13th 2019, 12:00 AM

    @helen walsh: simple. It’s not a black art.Everything for your compost heap must be uncooked and plant based. That means no cooked foods, no fats, no carbs, no oils. Egg shells excepted but it helps to break them down before chucking ‘em on your compost. Mix in cardboard, unbleached paper and newspaper from time to time, layered grass clippings, any garden vegetation as in the article above and away you go. If you’ve got rats or mice, you’ve been putting in foodstuffs.

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    Mute datagharch
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    Sep 18th 2019, 8:41 AM

    thanks alot

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Jan 13th 2019, 10:40 AM

    I don’t have a square yard, it’s more rectangular, with a circular end – so none of this is going to work.

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    Mute Ciarán Mac Cormaic
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:55 PM

    @David Cagney: You might still be able to have the soup.

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