Just writing the headline for this article makes my heart sink. It conjures up visions of kids and teens ignored, picked on and/or beaten up in that most tyrannical of places; school. What can be a more damning illustration of a society than young, terrified people getting no support from their elders?
Hot on the heels of a recent, similarly-themed opinion piece by his friend Ronan Mullen, where couples living in sin were resoundly chided, David Quinn of the Iona Institute has spoken out against Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly’s call to end “unfair discrimination” against unmarried straight couples.
As the Irish government seeks figure out just why the electorate rejected the Lisbon Treaty, its post-referendum navel gazing has led it to appoint a religious conservative to the committee charged with considering the outcome of the vote. It looks like Ireland is far from separating Church from State.
Eileen Flynn passed away earlier this week. She had been dismissed in the 1980s from her job as a teacher in a religious-run school, and the courts in Ireland upheld the school’s decision. Following her death, the same conservatism exists in the Ireland of 2008.
The Irish Times reports today that members of Italy’s mafia meted out a punishment of gang rape against one of their number they suspected of being gay. The man was raped while in prison two years ago by eight others, resulting in him requiring medical treatment. None of his attackers were punished by the authorities.
