Tony Hegarty can you be more original than peddling lies about good people who have given their lives to the service of god and their fellow human. How dare you spread your lies about vile exaggerated claims about good men of the cloth. May God forgive you.

Love the way people bandy around the term “maturity” to back up their own argument, classic

Does a mature nation effectively ignore the fact that 7,000 women travel overseas every year for a termination? I think not. A mature nation would recognise that our current legislaton does not prevent a single abortion, it merely forces a reality into the shadows.

Then again, perhaps I should question why I am trying to explain the concept of maturity to someone who refers to themselves as ‘The Green Monkey’ rather than using their real name and photography!

Green Monkey – how about you make a point rather than just attacking someone’s wording?

Maybe have the maturity to state your beliefs/church position and try to reconcile that?

There have been 2 referenda already. The issue isn’t even pro-life/pro-choice in Ireland anymore. It’s about acting on the 20 year old democratic expression.

It’s not open yet! I believe large portions of the population in Norther Ireland will totally oppose such a move. What’s so mature about opening a business that charges several hundred pounds to terminate a life? To me, maturity involves fighting for the basic human rights of all incuding the right without which no other right can exist- the right to life!

What about the well being of the yet to be born child,
In the state of Victoria Australia a woman can have an abortion on demand no questions asked up to 24 weeks, and get this( believe it or not, but it is a fact of law )if she gets more then one doctor’s referal she can abort her child right ANY time after that;NO time limit, and. Who performs this macabre “operation”the same clinic that is setting up the death camp in N.I.

The people here have no idea of what their saying . They are totally clueless and forget that god looks after his good people and it will not be forgotten on judgement day that they have transgressed the most holiest of people.

Unborn babies are defenceless.

Thumbs down for saying that unborn babies are defenceless?

Agree 100%. I do find it hypocritical that a Bishop would attempt to take the moral high ground on this protection of the rights of an unborn child and or life, considering the inconsistency of a number of diocese heads blundering of child protection guidelines during the scandal of clerical abuse. Having said that everyone is entitled to their personal views on the issue. I personally believe the opening of the Marie Stope Clinic is a positive step in the right direction for women’s health for the island of Ireland.

Wouldn’t it be an injustice not to speak on this issue? So, because of ” blundering on child protection” , the Catholic Church and its pastors should fail to speak on child protection ever again. That would really add insult to injury!

Has anyone looked at this website I’m sure the bishop would be embarrassed for everyone to see it especially while he hypocritically tries to make us believe he is interested in protecting children http://www.bishopaccountability.com I’d love to hear the views of others.

your correct, the catholic church has ruined its reputation, especially when it comes to issues like this!

Anyone surprised by this?

I like to hear what they have to say, problem????

So what happens now we don’t listen to people we don’t agree with. Let’s pretend we are grown ups

If there are less children, there are less children for the preists to play with.. Simples..

Less children means less children for the preists to play with..

Johnny, an awful comment. You should be ashamed.

Were you not a child yourself? I assume that you expected to be free to do as you liked and not worry about priests

Apologies for the triple post, but I’m completely astounded by someone who can justify abortion by equating it as a good thing because of priests. It makes no sense to me at all.

Seriously, do they think we care anymore? Most people in this country no longer trust the catholic church as an organization,

I’m also kind of surprised that this kind of ‘news’ makes the cut these days… Nobody cares what he thinks or says anymore

Inform yourself before criticising the RCC . This may help http://www.bishopaccountability.org

You should care for it will be your own doing on the day of resurrection , you should make peace with god and stop disrespecting his church. You will not enter the gates of heaven with that misguided attitude.

Liam, if I believed that I could also head to the market tomorrow morning and buy some beans, grow them into a giant beanstalk and steal the giants golden egg laying chicken. Price of gold these days I would be sorted, straight down to the local cash for gold!

Father jack!!!

I do, I do ..lol and I also think a woman should b allowed to do whatever she want with her own body n her own future without some ass holes tellen them what to do.. unless there is a poblic vote on abortion in ireland I m not going to comment anymore.

Eileen pay no attention to him he’s just a jumped up librarian working for Galway county council. He thinks he’s morally and intellectually superior to us all. He has another tweet account where he likes to boast that he’s over educated. He’s so smart he thinks child rape isn’t a crime. Just ignore him he’s a troll he’ll get his comeuppance

Eileen he’s just a jumped up librarian working for Galway county council. He thinks he’s morally and intellectually superior to us all. He has another tweet account where he likes to boast that he’s over educated. He’s so smart he thinks child rape isn’t a crime. Just ignore him he’s a troll he’ll get his comeuppance

Hegarty and gambett sound like a dodgy solicitors office. I thinks it well beyond your bedtime you both need to rest those over active skulls . First and foremost I was. Not making threats just giving sound advice. Secondly I do not work for Galway county council. Has it ever occurred to you tony Hegarty that there may be there are two liam Foleys . Your accusations are so off the mark . However I will say judging by your response that i am intellectually superior and the crimes you refer to were not committed by the church .child abuse is an illness if you knew anything about phycology you’d know that. It’s not a crime to be sick.

so should you

I agree with you chucky, and I want to make it clear to you that my following comment is not a criticism of you, or your point. When you say that “they should mind their own business “, unfortunately, I think that is exactly what they have been doing up until they were found out. Hopefully, their business will soon become bankrupt, due to lack of customers.

To be fair, the church has a pro-life stance. I don’t know why people would be surprised that they would make some form of statement.

Chucky have you seen this website http://www.bishopaccountability.org

Tony Hegarty who gave you the right to share that link. Can you not speak for yourself . Is that the best you can do to discredit the good works of religious men . Go peddle your lies and conspiracy theories elsewhere. I doubt anyone here is interested in what you have to say.

@Liam: “The right to share that link”?!?!!? Are you joking?

You might be better to pick a distinct lie in the website, highlight it and suggest that it’s not reliable (if there is a lie there) rather than question someone’s “right to share”. Jesus wept…..

Both are wrong

That is your opinion . I believe in Pro Choice , and Jail the effers who rape and torture the poor defencelwss children.

Like many bishops like him http://www.bishopaccountability.org

Eileen making libellous remarks such as that on a public domain against a good man of the faith is an abomination . Where is your proof ? I would recommend that you keep such opinions to yourself for your stupidity will be no defence when your up to your knees in litigation . It’s funny how people think they can get away discrediting innocent people without providing a shred of evidence for any wrong doing.

Liam Foley It is way past your bed time . Do not threaten me , the Church can not harm me any more !

And really how many of the “7000″ people that travel for abortions are doing so because their child won’t survive outside d womb! Very few I expect otherwise we have a serious epidemic on our hands! They do so because they dont feel like having a baby that They got pregnant with so they decide to kill it instead. Please tell me how u don’t think that is wrong?

fair comment

Africa is the only place that Christianity is growing… The church is relying on keeping them socially backward and dependant on the west to grow their fundamentalist cult. If life got better, health, education, the role of women then Africans would abandon religion in droves and religion would die out faster

Well said monk beam god is with you still. I pray that you come back to The Lord , the light and the church. We need people like you to defend the faith against false accusations.

Just get rid of the agreeing with abortion and contraception . You may All deny god but I can assure you in deep down you all still feel his presence.

Then a judge, psychiatrist, psychologist, doctor or other professional who is single shouldn’t be allowed to contribute to the discourse on abortion.

It’s always the freaks of society that want to tear it down!

Well Him Brown, considering the actions of the Church in the past in relation to child abuse, i think you should be more worried about the type of people in the church that abused kids and then the ones who decided to send those priests off to different parishes instead of doing something about it.

When things like that happen, i don’t blame anyone for going against the church. Alot of them Catholics.

Given the state’s record, they should butt out too? There were dreadful, horrific abuses of children, but let’s not tar everyone with the same brush. Isn’t it a good sign that the Church is speaking out for children now- what child can be more vulnerable than a small helpless baby in the womb? According to radio reports in the last few days, there are very good advance in the Church’s Child Protection Policies. Good to see the bishop speaking out. In a democracy, surely no one is excluded from speaking on this subject.

@Maria you must be living in an absolute deluded jesus loving orgy fest if you actually think that the catholic church has childrens best interests at heart. sure the leader of the catholic church in ireland cardinal brady has sworn children to silence and not tell anyone they were raped by priests!! No clergy member should be allowed near children unsupervised. what psycho parent would even risk their children around that cult these days is beyond me. and the only reason the catholic church has to increase child protection is because they were caught not because they care!! they would rape and rape and not give a toss about the children if they didnt get caught!

And the catholic churchs stance on abortion dont get me started. they dont care about the life of the unborn all they care about is trying to control the masses. they would rather see women who medically requires an abortion to die!! thereby resulting in not 1 death but 2. how does that make sense!!

I think your “but” has two tt’s

You can bet ur last penny that the same priests would have beaten the unborn from their mothers wombs in the laundries just to save their ar$es. The catholic church and their beliefs are on the way out. I’m just sorry it hasn’t happened sooner.

You can’t tar every priest and bishop with the same brush. Most of them would abhor any abuse of children. There are new priests being ordained every year who had nothing to do with the child abuse scandals. They can’t be blamed for something they didn’t do. As for the Catholic Church being on the way out- not true. The number of Catholics worldwide is actually increasing- it was up 1% in 2009 to 1.18 billion! Doesn’t seem like it will be dying out any time soon.

Who?…. The Ku Klux Klan?

Well said Maria , the truth willing out in the end . Most people here are clearly anti catholic and are playing into the hands of greater powers seeking to destroy the good name of the church. However I have faith that they will never succeed as they are weak in their convictions and no match for all the good people of the church. I say let them have their gay marriage soft they will never be able to procreate and give life unlike good Catholics whose offspring will continue to flourish and inherit the earth. Long after their kind have left the earth. We must also pity them however for I fear they will not have joy in the afterlife.

Being gay is an illness we should be praying for those poor unfortunates who are afflicted by this disease. I myself was saved from it through the power of the Holy Spirit .

You cannot abort a child because you think it’s gay.

Except possibly the British army !

Indeed, there is them! :-)

Not true. They operate under a devolved government and have a say on some issues – like welfare and health – but none on others – like defence and tax. No decision would have been made without contacting the NI Secretary or Westminster.

Actually Tom the fact that some 7000 women a year travel to another country (Britain) suggests this is a problem for the southern part of our country, indeed all our country north and south. Whether you agree or disagree with the purpose of the service in Belfast at least Irish women now have a service in Ireland which has to be better for them at such a vulnerable time in their lives. Obviously it would be even better if there was a similar service, say, in Dublin, Galway and Cork. Note the non-partitionist theme in this response – a different argument for another day perhaps.
Overall I would agree with many of the comments here regarding the hypocrisy of the Catholic church although if we are to uphold the principle of free speech we have to accept their right to make their point. Most people will be able to treat their opinions with whatever level of contempt they feel is deserved given its source.

Fair point Éamonn.

I wouldn’t be half surprised if the Roman Church’s opposition was based on their own demographic considerations then their alleged respect for human dignity.
If anyone’s fool enough to think the church cares about human dignity, ask a survivor of the Industrial Schools or the Magdalene Laundries, or a member of the LGBT community, or the women forced to travel to England for a safe, legal abortion about it.

In the south under the hse we would have a 9 month waiting list

I agree, if a women killed herself because she didn’t want a child that would be sad :(

Course you didn’t mean that :)

Do Women really go around killing themselves because they’re pregnant .

In 0.000001% of cases perhaps.

Did you make those stats up? I’d say there’s a 99.9% chance you did

There are lots and lots of people who regret having abortions I have never heard or anyone who regretted having their child.

I agree…that’s why women in risk should be allowed to chose life when maternity would otherwise sentence them to death!

Yeh, never met anyone who regretting having their child…in a fantasy world. I know someone who regretted having kids. They didn’t hate their children but they admitted it was the wrong decision for them and they regret giving up their life for motherhood. So there ya go, one person who contradicts your little theory :)

I’m neither a church goer nor a women’s activist, but I’m glad that I do not know Martin Grehan or his friend who regrets having a child

Martin, to be fair, people often throw around reasons for abortion like mother’s life at risk and potential suicide but I’d love to hear what hard research says about that. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but there are claims made by both sides of the debate that seem to me to promote anecdotal “evidence” as if it’s true in all cases.

In terms of the pro-life claim that nobody ever regretted having a child – I can’t believe how naive this is, to imagine that this is true….. And while it may seem distasteful, there is the taboo-laden point of view that there is such a thing as a positive abortion story. You may be surprised by how many of those stories there are.

Yeah Nellysroom, a sad sad day when if a women is raped and is pregnant because of this rape she isn’t allowed to control how this will affect the rest of her life and her mental well being.

If you thinking forcing a women to give birth to a baby from a rape is a good thing then you obviously care little about the women,

wow Barry. conflated argument of the year goes to you.

Maybe for women who regret giving up their lives for motherhood, it’s not abortion that they needed, but supports, incentives to improve their lives and the financial assistance to do so. I hope our government doesn’t try to introduce abortion while cutting back on the very aids and systems that help women to view motherhood as something other than an awful trial. There’s a high level of depression in this country and mental health issues- a woman suffering from depression could easily say that she regretted having her child, but what’s needed is kindness and access to services.

When it comes to depression or suicide in pregnancy- I don’t think there is any mainstream psychiatric textbook that recommends abortion as a treatment in these sad situations. In fact, one factor that increases the risk of post-abortion symptoms is existing mental health conditions.

So spare a thought for the mother, then. What about her life? The whole point of this clinic is to provide termination when the mother’s life is at risk because of the pregnancy. Denying her that treatment would be the same as denying someone treatment for cancer or any other serious affliction. That’s it.

So for every red thumb you think life is not worth a shit, I don’t care if they are red or green, I did not comment for that reason..I did because I believe That your life and that of the unborn is as equal, and we all deserve a chance at life.

John
Name a woman that has died as a direct result of being pregnant. I await you answer.

That’s a ridiculous request. You do know childbirth is an extremely common cause of death in women, right? My initial response to you was to retort against your first claim that pro-choice (or “the left”) people are for killing babies. I was simply replying in an equally melodramatic way. You seem to not have got that though. Well done.

Just as I suspected.

Here you go, a report about a lady who died from childbirth complications.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/hse-pays-out-850000-over-mum-of-twos-death-3257129.html

Yep I read the same about her. she looked up to hitler & they name an abortion clinic after her. suppose he done the same, slaughter of the innocent

Are “pro-life” people for the killing of innocent women?

Please tell all the names of these women that have died from being pregnant. That is always what I find funny, the left will always say how all these women are dying because they are pregnant but when does it actually happen? I honestly believe most on the right support it when the child won’t survive or in the case of rape (like myself) but ye won’t won’t be happy until every downs child is aborted, many of whom I see in the pub or elsewhere being normal people. Shame on you sickos!

Sorry, since when are the rights of someone who hasn’t been born more important than someone who is currently alive and contributing to society? Because that is more disgusting than anything you claim abortion to be.

Everything in life involves a risk and so does sex. I just can’t imagine how people would want to kill a child. If you’re going to be adults, be adults and take responsibility for your actions. But no, the left is made up of a overwhelming degree of pussys that like to talk a heap of crap but never step up to the plate. I would like to make it clear that I don’t feel any animosity to people like you, only sorrow because you’re deluded by liberal ideals.

You’re completely missing the point. The idea of this clinic is to give treatment to women whose lives are at risk because of their pregnancy. They may have wanted this child but are unable to go through with it because of a detrimental affect on their health.

Also, you claim to have no animosity towards me, yet you’ve used the terms pussy, sickos and deluded. Not sure you understand the meaning of the word animosity.

@himbrown, I love that you would prefer a living woman to go full term and deliver a child that will die, a chance to live on for the rest of her life, however she can, knowing that its ok because she didn’t have a bloody choice in the matter. What, if,in her deepest depression she will no doubt have, she cannot look after the child/ren she already has? Are you going to say that those kids are going into care is a terrible “thing”?

I will ask it again, who are all these women that are dying? And I do have no animosity as I said but that is the usual experience I have of lefties it doesn’t mean I hate them, I just think they tend to think they are better than most people because they have a BA in some shit that isn’t worth toilet paper and think it gives them mental superiority over everyone else.

Niamh read comment above fully before you talk crap!

thejournal.ie/abortion-belfast-marie-stopes-630475-Oct2012/
Have a look at this very brave woman. Diana wests child would have had absolutely no hope for survival. That wonderful woman is here to teach us a very important lesson. She managed to cope and carry on under the worst situation imaginable. She was advised by medical professionals that her unborn child would have no chance of survival. If she chose to ignore the doctors advice and died as a result of poisoning from the fluid leaking into her womb, instead of the LIFE form that she is today, would that not be suicide? How does ur wonderful church feel about that?

Oh, and millions of people die as a direct result of childbirth and pregnancy! U can check it out for yourself. You must have internet access? Or am I being silly?

tvnz.co.nz/national-news/woman-died-during-childbirth-in-excruciating-pain-4898671

Do u need more?

No, you said you were in favour of it if the child won’t survive, you mentioned nothing about the well being of the mother, which is what this clinic is about. And by using all of the above derogatory phrases and names, you have completely voided any argument you might want to posit here.

Ok. Keep believing that.

What are all these life-threatening conditions that would manifest themselves before a woman is 9 weeks pregnant? Women aren’t dying. We have some of the best figures in the world for maternal care and an extremely low maternal mortality rate. Our figures are always near the top and are often much better than countries that permit abortion. A pregnant woman in Ireland can be sure of superior care and that her obstetrician, midwife and other health care professionals will treat two patients-mother and baby- and do their very best for both.

It is true home the people making posts here are constantly tripping over their own foolish comments. They make outlandish statements and ridicule a good , truthful man who cares more for the preservation of Irish society than all of them put together.

Sorry I meant to type HIM

Its her decision as she sees fit John, you or I or nobody else knows her personal circumstances, and why she chose to have a termination.