Boston College: Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), will give the Commencement Address to Boston College’s 4,400 graduates at Alumni Stadium this morning.
 
In the three years since coming to power, Kenny has looked to build a “Republic of laws,” a Republic that many Irish expatriates in the US—myself included—identify with because it closely mirrors the society in which we now live, a society where the letter of the law rather than the unspoken assumption of a doctrinaire moral code determines social policy.
 
Savita Halappanavar is a victim of that moral code and social policy. Mrs. Halappanavar died of sepsis, an infection brought on by the miscarriage of her seventeen-week pregnancy, in a Galway hospital on 28th October 2012. Her grieving husband described the medical treatment meted out to his wife as “horrendous, barbaric and inhumane.” To read the “Timeline” of his wife’s eight-day ordeal, based on evidence presented at the week-long official inquest, induces shame and anger. A young healthy woman fell victim to a lack of political will.
 
Enda Kenny outlined his vision for a very different Ireland during a Dáil Éireann speech in July 2011 when responding to the publication of the Cloyne Report. Like earlier reports—Murphy, Ryan, and Ferns—Cloyne echoed the well established narrative of clerical child sex abuse and confirmed the Catholic hierarchy’s failure to report such abuse to the civic authorities. The Bishop in question observed the dictates of the Vatican rather than the law of the land.
 
But Cloyne was of a different order too. It detailed how the Vatican deliberately organized to frustrate an Irish State-commissioned inquiry into clerical child sex abuse as recently as 2009. In an unprecedented move, Mr. Kenny, a devout Catholic, entered the Dáil chamber, the seat of political power in Ireland, and called the Vatican to account. And, he declared the primacy of the State’s standards, not those of the Catholic Church, in all matters related to the protection of Ireland’s children.
 
The “Cloyne speech” represents a watershed moment because it encapsulates a new vision for the nation:

A Boston College spokesman has been forced to defend and justify their selection of Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as the commencement speaker after hearing criticism from Catholic groups over his stance on Ireland abortion law reform debate.

The Dublin actor, Gabriel Byrne, who trained in a seminary for five years where he was sexually abused, has said the Catholic Church is a “force for evil” that once drew inspiration from Hitler’s Nazis.

A recent poll carried out by Behavior & Attitudes for the Irish Sunday Times on religious beliefs has yielded some very interesting results.

Ireland’s most powerful Catholic leader has slammed abortion and euthanasia in his annual Easter address.

A local priest has spoken out over the cancellation of Hoboken, New Jersey’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. In his weekly column the Reverend slams those who partied at the Lepre-Con event, which replaced the Irish patron saint’s celebrations, and rapped Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

The social structure that allowed for forced labor and misery in Magdalene Laundries to occur is part of the Irish psyche, according to Sunday's Irish Independent Op Ed.

Writing for the newspaper, journalist Emer O’Kelly states that the Irish society should feel guilty for perpetuating a system that allowed for women to be sent to Magdalene Laundries.

The next pope is very likely to be African according to Paddy Power, Ireland’s leading bookmaker, who has come out with a list of “papabile,” those considered papal material.

A leading Catholic lawyer and commentator has slammed the Pope for publicly shaming Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony over clerical child abuse whilst treating Irish Cardinal Sean Brady in an entirely different matter.

Believing that you can do no harm because God is on your side has a long history, but it’s still one of the most dangerous ideas you can entertain. As Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney has discovered, the consequences of that belief have been playing out for decades in the Catholic Church. In his new powerful new film Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, he tells Cahir O'Doherty why he holds the church to account for it.

The new Bishop of Cloyne has vowed to bring about reconciliation in one of the dioceses worst hit by clerical sex abuse scandals.

A new survey found that the Irish rank religion and spirituality as the least important aspect of their lives. The Irish ranked education as the most important out of a suggested 119 categories.

Father Tony Flannery of the Redemptorist, a high profile Irish priest known for his views on issues such as female ordination and homosexuality, refused a Vatican edict to apologize this weekend for some of his positions in order to remain a priest in good standing.