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Post by optatuscleary on Feb 20, 2020 18:00:52 GMT
Irish pro lifers have to keep the issue alive. It becomes a feedback loop. The majority voted for repeal. So politicians start claiming to have “evolved” to go where the wind is blowing. So pro life people start shutting up because no one represents them. So politicians don’t even think of supporting pro-life causes. America has a strong pro-life movement. Of course we always lose, but at least it feels like a present issue.
I believe there are more pro-life people in the world than most politicians would want you to believe. Probably about a third (like the Irish vote) are pro-life in most places. If it can be kept alive and discussed, then maybe something could change eventually.
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Post by cato on Apr 21, 2020 11:30:47 GMT
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael seem to be planning a coalition a prospect that would have been anathema to party loyalists in former times. The left have long desired the end of civil war politics so they can get a proper left right system up and running in Ireland. The so called "right" in Ireland have now abandoned economic prudence . Now all politics in Ireland is leftist to some extent. There is no centre right party of any description left. By embracing the left's agenda the traditional right wing parties are guaranting their own demise.
Their proposed manifesto is basically fantasy. Increase social spending by borrowing cheap EU cash . This ignores that virtually everyone will be doing the same and that we owe €200 billion + from the last financial crash. No one will pay any extra tax and there will be no austerity either. This is simply nuts.
Excluding Sinn Fein is a major error too.The next government may have to take the hardest decisions of any Irish government. Remember the post crash governments were forced by the
Troika to implement massive cuts. This time we will have to do it ourselves. The IMF aren't coming to the rescue again. To exclude Sinn Fein makes them the opposition and ultimately the next government. A three party national unity government is necessary. Excluding Sinn Fein is much more dangerous than the risks of including them.
FF and FG don't have the numbers to make up a majority neither. The Irish people are split into broadly 5 separate electoral blocs, none has the backing of more than a quarter of the electorate. A weak government will not survive a couple of years in a very uncertain world which will require strong leadership.
In the longer term I think Sinn Fein will attract what's left of Fianna Fail particularly the nationalist rump of that party and become the Nationalist movement. Fine Gael will be a party for the liberal wealthy class. I don't see any right wing party yet in Irish politics unless we eventually achieve Irish unification. But political crystal ball gazing is a very risky pastime especially in 2020.
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Post by cato on Jun 26, 2020 17:43:55 GMT
We are expecting a decision on a new government formation this evening almost 5 months after an election. We used to sneer at countries that found themselves hopelessly divided and unable to form a government like Italy or Belgium.
This time last year we were ridiculing the dysfunctional English constitution in the aftermath of Brexit. A little bit of political Karma then rained down on the Emerald Isle.
The proposed Green /FF/FG alliance exists for one reason essentially- to fulfil Micheal Martin's ambition to be Taoiseach. He will probably be the last FF Taoiseach ever. This fact is directly related to This ambition.
This new government will probably be one of our worst. More later as news emerges from the sordid bowels of the three party lairs.
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Post by cato on Jun 29, 2020 13:52:15 GMT
Our new Green FF/FG government has been formed. Future generations will wonder why it took decades for FF/FG to ally. Ideologically they all have the same lack of principles except a desire to blindly adopt the latest progressive cause. This government will face a major burden in trying to resurrect the Irish economy and help us to learn to live with Covid. It says it can do that fairly and without pain. If it does so this will be a first in world history. As someone who likes avoiding pain I wish them well. There is no price list yet for all the ambitious projects planned.
On the new regimes wish list there are some dubious items like Hate Crime legislation - to be brought in within the first 100 days at Green insistence. Banning peaceful pro life meetings outside abortion clinics is planned as is reducing the age limit on when children can change gender without parental consent. The ridiculous bill to boycott Israeli exports which held up negotiations has been dropped on legal advice. No doubt there are some hidden time bombs too. At the previous election few predicted Repeal of the 8th. Indeed many imagined the government was relatively pro life.
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Post by Séamus on Jun 30, 2020 3:35:05 GMT
Our new Green FF/FG government has been formed....etc... Banning peaceful pro life meetings outside abortion clinics is planned as is reducing the age limit on when children can change gender without parental consent...etc.... When governments find themselves more progressive than globalist JK Rowling we know there's a problem. I wonder do western nations realise how much reserve they'll need when a future generation begins seeking compensation from their health services after realising how impossibly inappropriate their state of mind had been when making these decisions? |
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Post by peadar on Sept 19, 2020 14:00:31 GMT
While looking at the Irish Catholics forum today, I noticed Hibernicus remarked - in regards to the defeat of the National party - that (paraphrasing) "Our country has sunken low, but it hasn't sunk that low yet." In a country that seems keen for legalised abortion, that is openly or even enthusiastically anti-Catholic, and that seems to be determined to pander to and imitate the degeneracy spilling out of the United States; I do wonder how Hibernicus has come to the conclusion that, despite all those things, it is Irish people voting for the National Party that would be taking things too far. I know Right wing politics are frowned upon over there, but even still, that is a rather unusual set of priorities Hibernicus seems to have. I think that poster's remarks about the National Party are entirely appropriate when you consider Justin Barrett's public statements. I don't how how any Catholic could countenance someone who's said the following.  |
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Post by cato on Sept 19, 2020 15:59:31 GMT
While looking at the Irish Catholics forum today, I noticed Hibernicus remarked - in regards to the defeat of the National party - that (paraphrasing) "Our country has sunken low, but it hasn't sunk that low yet." In a country that seems keen for legalised abortion, that is openly or even enthusiastically anti-Catholic, and that seems to be determined to pander to and imitate the degeneracy spilling out of the United States; I do wonder how Hibernicus has come to the conclusion that, despite all those things, it is Irish people voting for the National Party that would be taking things too far. I know Right wing politics are frowned upon over there, but even still, that is a rather unusual set of priorities Hibernicus seems to have. I think that poster's remarks about the National Party are entirely appropriate when you consider Justin Barrett's public statements. I don't how how any Catholic could countenance someone who's said the following. View Attachment Those remarks by Justin Barrett are vile. He has a tendency to make snide throw away remarks like a smart but cynical teenager. Romero was murdered while celebrating mass which is a sacrilegious desecration on top of a cold calculated murder. It's far beyond a joke. Romero has a following among radical social justice types but was a close follower of Opus Dei too. It is possible to care for the poor and be entirely orthodox and Catholic too. In fact one should be. That's holiness . As a good traditional catholic Justin should be aware that traditionally the canonisation of saints was regarded as an exercise of papal infallibility. St Oscar Romero pray for us. |
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Post by hilary on Sept 19, 2020 22:30:32 GMT
I don't understand Justin Barrett's tweet without more context. I tried to find out an alternative view of Archbishop Oscar Romero to what's in google but there's only the one favourable view that I can find. So one has to imagine that he was perhaps left wing? Maybe less traditional? "Today not so much" I don't understand and I doubt if anyone would want to explain it to me. Maybe to do with the death penalty. I'll have to do better than Google!
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Post by cato on Sept 19, 2020 23:05:12 GMT
I don't understand Justin Barrett's tweet without more context. I tried to find out an alternative view of Archbishop Oscar Romero to what's in google but there's only the one favourable view that I can find. So one has to imagine that he was perhaps left wing? Maybe less traditional? "Today not so much" I don't understand and I doubt if anyone would want to explain it to me. Maybe to do with the death penalty. I'll have to do better than Google![ [br ]Hilary the remarks mean Barrett believes Romero got his just dessert by being killed but not in 2018 when he was canonised. A nasty nasty remark. /quote] Romero is regarded as a pious traditional cleric who was radicalized and became sympathetic to liberation Theology. His sermons condemning government brutality and oppression are regarded as provoking the El Salvador dictatorship who decided to assassinate him at mass guaranteeing his martyrdom. I have seen some books on him by liberal catholic publishers but am not too familiar with how radical he actually became , if at all. I presume he remained doctrinally orthodox if he was canonised but he was a iconic figure to the catholic left particularly those who followed liberation Theology in the 1980s and 1990s. Many Irish missionaries were Romero fans from what I remember . I recall hearing Bishop Eamon Casey preach a sermon on his experience attending Romeros funeral. Incredibly the right wing death squad snipers fired on people at the funeral mass. Casey himself had to hide behind a church pillar to avoid gunfire. A few months later Eamon Casey resigned and the rest is history as they say. |
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Post by hilary on Sept 20, 2020 14:43:16 GMT
Thanks for that, Cato. In reply to Peadar, I would say Catholics are expected to forgive so it wouldn't be true to say that they could never vote for someone who may have said something in the past. I don't think the Twitter feed is available and that's a problem with cancel culture and social media - I don't know whether that tweet was part of an ongoing discussion and it might even have been retracted (or be falsely attributed). Obviously I'm giving the benefit of the doubt but isn't it better to challenge, discuss, learn and understand in the present and hopefully avoid the need for truth and reconciliation forums in the future?!
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Post by kj on Sept 20, 2020 17:39:20 GMT
I know someone who shared a platform with Barrett and shares many of his ideas, but after meeting him described him as a b*****d, which didn't surprise me much.
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Post by peadar on Sept 20, 2020 23:33:57 GMT
I don't understand Justin Barrett's tweet without more context. I tried to find out an alternative view of Archbishop Oscar Romero to what's in google but there's only the one favourable view that I can find. So one has to imagine that he was perhaps left wing? Maybe less traditional? "Today not so much" I don't understand and I doubt if anyone would want to explain it to me. Maybe to do with the death penalty. I'll have to do better than Google! 'Today not so much' refers to the canonisation of Romero, which occurred on 14 October 2018, the day on which Barrett tweeted. I saw it when it was originally posted and can confirm its authenticity, but I appreciate Barrett's Twitter feed is no longer online for others to judge the context.
Romero is often labelled a 'liberation theologian', but that claim is really unfounded. He was orthodox, influenced by Opus Dei, and strongly condemned the Marxist liberation theology expounded by Gustavo Gutiérrez. He did become increasingly outspoken about social justice issues and against violence by right-wing paramilitaries in El Salvador later in his episcopate, which precipitated his 1980 assassination.
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