Rapid Reading Review – short reports and links
‘Abuses of rights’ at care homes
BBC – An investigation into Northern Ireland nursing homes hears claims of human rights abuses.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17238190
No bitterness over Abercorn bombers
News Letter – Jim Stewart, who lost both legs in the IRA’s bombing of the Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast in 1972, could be forgiven if he looked back with a burning sense of bitterness. He has also suffered a succession of heart attacks and is now a victim of the debilitating Huntington’s Disease. But Jim, with a profound Christian faith and “a wonderful family that the Lord has bestowed upon me”, feels only compassion and forgiveness, even though nobody has been brought to justice for the atrocity which killed two young women – Belfast friends Frances Owens, 22, and 21-year-old Janet Bereen – and injured 70 others.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/lifestyle/features/no-bitterness-over-abercorn-bombers-1-3588814
Traditional family stronger in Dungannon District than elsewhere in NI
Tyrone Times – Traditional values of marriage and the nuclear family are stronger among Dungannon couples than anywhere else in Northern Ireland and most of the UK. The local district has the least number of new single parents, and couples in co-habitating relationships before marrying among the North’s 26 district council areas, according to the latest report from the Registrar’s Office. Only 23 percent of local children were born out of wedlock, the lowest in Northern Ireland, said the report which covers the third quarter of 2011.
http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/news/local/traditional-family-stronger-in-dungannon-district-than-elsewhere-in-the-north-1-3581868
Clonmacnois residents face new worry over Heritage Site bid
CiNews – Residents of Clonmacnois, Co. Offaly, have expressed renewed concern over efforts by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to have the ancient monastic site accorded World Heritage status. The Clonmacnois Action Group, which represents local people concerned about the implications of a designation for their livelihoods and lifestyles, wants a meeting with Minister Jimmy Deenihan (pictured) as fear grows that his Department will push ahead with trying to get UNESCO to approve the designation without consulting its members. The Minister recently told local TD Nicky Fadden that he is, “reviewing the strategy for advancing nominations to the World Heritage List from the new tentative list.” He said his Department is undertaking a feasibility study in relation to one site, which he did not name, and that, “consideration is now being given to the order of progressing nominations from the tentative list and the process for progressing such nominations.”
The Clonmacnois site is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing 134,000 visitors last year. It was included in a list of Irish sites put forward in 2010 to the UN agency for accreditation as a World Heritage Centre.
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9824
Financial difficulties major trigger in marital discord
CiNews – Two in every three couples coming to Ireland’s largest counselling agency now identify financial difficulties as a factor triggering stress in their relationship.
So said Liam Lally, Co-Director of Counselling with Accord, the Catholic Marriage Care Service that celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend. Mr Lally who has worked with Accord for over ten years, also pointed to use of phone, texting and internet as triggers of marital discord. “Over use of phones and texting, and also use of the internet, are issues that couples now list as contributing to the difficulties they are experiencing in their relationships,” he told ciNews. This weekend ACCORD, is 50. Since it opened its doors in Belfast in 1962, the organisation has grown to a network of 60 centres all over Ireland, providing counselling sessions and pre marriage courses to thousands of people. In 2010, the organisation provided over 43,000 counselling hours, up 10% on the previous year.
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9814
New Irish guidelines on surrogacy fail to address ethical issues: Iona
CiNews – New Government guidelines designed to advise people who have used surrogate mothers abroad on their legal rights, “badly overlook some of the major ethical concerns” associated with surrogacy. The guidelines, published last month by Justice Minister Alan Shatter, do not consider such ethical issues as whether surrogacy is inherently exploitative, or whether motherhood should be ‘split’ between a birth mother and a biological mother (the egg donor). Surrogacy involves gestating the baby in another woman’s womb. A number of Irish couples have used foreign surrogacy mothers, usually from India, Ukraine and America. Commenting on the guidelines, Breda O’Brien, patron of the Iona Institute, warned that surrogacy raises, “two very important ethical concerns.”
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9794
Transgender “woman” enters civil partnership
CiNews – A man from another EU country who claims to have a female gender identity has entered a civil partnership with a woman in Ireland. The civil partnership is Ireland’s first involving a transgendered person, according to a report in The Irish Times. The man was fully recognised as a woman in his country of origin, which meant that the Irish authorities were obliged under EU law to recognise him as a woman when he came to Ireland to work. He is fully recognised as a female in his country and has a birth certificate and identity documents all showing his gender as female. Following correspondence with Free Legal Aid Centre, the Civil Registration Service recognised the person as female, even though the Government has not yet introduced legislation to recognise transgender persons. The Government has drafted proposals to recognise transgender persons that do not require applicants to have had a sex change operation. Under the proposals, a person with male sex organs could be officially recognised as a woman.
http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9808
Sinn Fein chairman: IRA should say sorry for hurt caused
Belfast Telegraph – One of the most senior figures in the Sinn Fein leadership has challenged republicans to say “sorry” — not for the IRA war, but for the hurt caused by all its armed actions. Declan Kearney, the party’s national chairman, sets out his thinking in the latest edition of republican newspaper An Phoblacht. But it is not clear how or when the wider republican leadership will respond.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/sinn-fein-chairman-ira-should-say-sorry-for-hurt-caused-16125881.html?r=RSS&google_editors_picks=true