Disgraced clergyman is accused of assault; Annual Drumcree parade passes without incident; NI Grammar schools face axe; Ireland sees more than 700 same-sex marriages in 2011; Creationism and political power in Northern Ireland; Richard Dawkins: Creationism at Giant’s Causeway ‘is intellectual baboonism’; DUP man joins Causeway creationist row
Disgraced clergyman is accused of assault
Belfast Telegraph – A fortnight ago former Church of Ireland minister Spencer Gilchrist was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for harassing two women. Gilchrist (46), was formerly the minister at St Saviour’s Church in Connor, Ballymena, Co Antrim. Last year he …
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/disgraced-clergyman-is-accused-of-assault-16182602.html
Annual Drumcree parade passes without incident
Irish Times – Orange Lodge members from Portadown yesterday marched from the Church of Ireland on Drumcree Hill to the police cordon that prevents them from returning to the town via the Garvaghy Road. The short walk from church to cordon has become a weekly …
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0709/1224319635729.html
Grammar schools face axe
Belfast Telegraph – Grammar schools have been dealt a hammer blow following the publication of radical plans which will see a number of post-primaries close or merge. Under the five education boards’ proposals several of our 68 grammars could be merged with non-selective secondary schools. In Northern Ireland there are currently 85,000 school places which are unfilled.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/grammar-schools-face-axe-16181952.html
Ireland sees more than 700 same-sex marriages in 2011
Irish Examiner – More than 700 gay couples have tied the knot since civil partnerships were introduced in the Republic of Ireland last year. Same-sex civil partnerships now account for 2.6% of all partnerships in Ireland. Up to 50% of the 734 partnerships took place in Dublin and every county in the country has celebrated at least one.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/ireland-sees-more-than-700-same-sex-marriages-in-2011-558378.html
Creationism and political power in Northern Ireland
New Statesman – The age of the earth is of course a scientific question with a clear scientific answer. It’s not a religious question. But it is, at least in Northern Ireland, increasingly a political question, and political debates are not primarily concerned about …
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/creationism-and-political-power-northern-ireland
Richard Dawkins: Creationism at Giant’s Causeway ‘is intellectual baboonism’
Belfast Telegraph -The National Trust should not have buckled to pressure from the “intellectual baboons of young Earth creationism”, one of the world’s leading evolutionists has told the Belfast Telegraph.
Professor Richard Dawkins said it was regrettable that the trust had “paid lip service to the ignorant bigotry” of fundamentalists who believe the world is just 6,000 years old after references to creationism were included in the Giant’s Causeway visitors’ centre.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/richard-dawkins-creationism-at-giants-causeway-is-intellectual-baboonism-16181959.html
DUP man joins Causeway creationist row
Newsletter – The future DUP health minister has entered the escalating row about an acknowledgement of creationism in the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre, defending it as “perfectly legitimate”. Although the National Trust – which opened the £18.5 million centre on Tuesday – endorses the scientific view that the rocks are about 65 million years old, an audio exhibit in the centre informs visitors that some believe the earth is 6,000 years old. On Friday, Professor Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s leading evolutionists, attacked the National Trust over the exhibit, accusing it of caving in to “the intellectual baboons of young earth creationism”.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/dup-man-joins-causeway-creationist-row-1-4032265