The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executive president, a bicameral parliament, a separation of powers and judicial review.
Ivana Catherine Bacik is an Irish Labour Party politician who has been Leader of the Labour Party since 24 March 2022 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency since winning a by-election on 9 July 2021. Bacik previously served as Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad from 2011 to 2021, and a Senator for the Dublin University constituency from 2007 to 2021. She previously served as Deputy leader of Seanad Éireann from 2011 to 2016.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1983 was an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which inserted a subsection recognising "the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn". Abortion had been subject to criminal penalty in Ireland since at least 1861; the amendment ensured that legislation or judicial interpretation would be restricted to allowing abortion in circumstances where the life of a pregnant woman was at risk. It was approved by referendum on 7 September 1983 and signed into law on 7 October 1983. In 2018, it was repealed by referendum.
In Ireland, the state retains laws that allow for censorship, including specific laws covering films, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, as well as terrorism and pornography, among others. In the early years of the state, censorship was more widely enforced, particularly in areas that were perceived to be in contradiction of Catholic dogma, including abortion, sexuality and homosexuality. The church had banned many books and theories for centuries, listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
The current Constitution of Ireland came into effect on 29 December 1937, repealing and replacing the Constitution of the Irish Free State, having been approved in a national plebiscite on 1 July 1937 with the support of 56.5% of voters in the then Irish Free State. The Constitution was closely associated with Éamon de Valera, the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State at the time of its approval.
The Dominican Order has been present in Ireland since 1224 when the first foundation was established in Dublin, a monastic settlement north of the River Liffey, where the Four Courts is located today. This was quickly followed by Drogheda, Kilkenny (1225), Waterford (1226), Limerick (1227) and Cork (city) (1229). The order was reestablished in the 19th century after having been driven out in the 17th century by laws against Catholic religious orders. During the Penal Laws, as other Irish Colleges were established on the continent, in 1633 the Irish Dominicans established, the College of Corpo Santo, Lisbon and College of the Holy Cross, Louvain (1624-1797) to train clergy for ministering in Ireland. San Clemente al Laterano in Rome, was entrusted to the Irish Dominicans in 1677. In 1855, St. Mary's Priory, Tallaght, was established to train members of the order, who would complete their clerical studies in Rome and be ordained in the Basilica San Clemente.
The Catholic Herald is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine in 2014. In early 2023, a 50.1% controlling stake was purchased by New York based alternative asset firm GEM Global Yield LLC SCS (Luxembourg). It reports 565,000 online readers a month, along with 30,100 weekly registered newsletter subscribers and a print readership distributed in the US and UK, Roman Catholic parishes, wholesale outlets, the Vatican, Cardinals, Catholic influencers, and postal/digital subscribers.
Michael Cardinal Browne, O.P., was an Irish priest of the Dominican Order and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Master General of the Dominicans from 1955 to 1962, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1962.
Lolek CLG, operating under the business name the Iona Institute, is an Irish, socially conservative organisation that advocates the advancement and promotion of the Christian religion and its social and moral values. It has been frequently described as a Catholic pressure group. Founded by columnist David Quinn, it was launched publicly in 2007.
Rónán Thomas Mullen is an Irish senator and former delegate to the Council of Europe. He is the leader of the Human Dignity Alliance, an anti-abortion political party formed in 2018. He was elected by the National University Seanad constituency in July 2007 and re-elected in 2011, 2016 and 2020. He has topped the poll in every NUI Seanad election since 2011. Mullen is a frequent media commentator on social and political topics. The first National University of Ireland senator appointed to the Council of Europe, he received international coverage for his role in defeating the controversial McCafferty Report which sought to limit the right to conscientious objection for medical staff in the case of abortions.
Margaret Pearse was an Irish politician. She was the mother of Patrick Pearse and Willie Pearse, who were both executed after the 1916 Easter Rising. She was later elected to Dáil Éireann.
Cóir was a social Catholic, conservative Eurosceptic lobby group established to campaign against the Treaty of Lisbon which was approved by referendum in Ireland on 2 October 2009. The group claimed to have had approximately 2,600 campaign volunteers for the 6 months prior to the referendum.
Maev-Ann Wren is an Irish economist, journalist, author, and former special advisor to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Roisin Shortall. She is the former economics editor of The Irish Times newspaper. Wren has written two books about the Irish health system and her writings have often been mentioned during Dáil and Seanad debates, and in parliamentary committee. She has been described in the Seanad as "a recognised expert on health care."
The Priory Institute, is part of the St. Mary's Dominican Priory on the grounds of the old Tallaght Castle, Dublin 24, Ireland and provides, certificate, diploma, and degree programmes in theology and philosophy.
Because the Catholic Church opposes abortion as a matter of doctrine, some Catholic bishops have refused or threatened to refuse communion, or threatened to declare excommunication upon Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. In some cases, officials have stated that ministers should refuse communion to such politicians per canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law; elsewhere, that the politicians should, on their own, refrain from receiving communion ad normam canon 916; and in other cases, excommunication has been suggested.
Irish College at Lisbon or St Patrick's College, Lisbon was set up during the Penal Times, by a group of Irish Jesuits, supported by a number of Portuguese Nobles, in Lisbon.
The Catholic Press was a Sydney-based newspaper that was first published on 9 November 1895 and ran until 26 February 1942, after which it amalgamated with the Catholic Freeman's Journal and was reborn as The Catholic Weekly.
Michael MacDonagh, O.P. (1698–1746) was an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Kilmore from 1728 to 1746.
John Baptist Sleyne was Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and Cloyne and Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Ross, who was an enthusiastic patron of the Gaelic language and culture, and an advocate of the severely repressed Roman Catholic population, in Ireland during the early period of the Penal Laws. He was one of only two bishops to minister in Ireland at the end of the 17th century. Sleyne was very learned in languages and moral theology, and had traveled widely. He was known to and had interactions with kings, queens, popes and wider cultural and religious establishment throughout Ireland and Europe. Because Sleyne "remain[ed] in the kingdom contrary to the [penal] law", of the time, he went into hiding. He was eventually brought before the courts in 1698 and spent five years in prison in Cork Gaol. During his time as Bishop, both as fugitive and prisoner, Sleyne ordained many priests and consecrated several bishops in Ireland. He was eventually exiled to Portugal, on 11 February 1703, where he was given shelter in the Irish Dominican Convento do Bom Sucesso, Lisbon. He died in Portugal on 16 February 1712, aged 74 years and is buried at the altar of the Sacred Heart in the Church of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso.
The Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution is an amendment to the constitution of Ireland which removed the constitution's requirement to criminalise "publication or utterance of blasphemous matter". The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas — the Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2018, which was introduced in Dáil Éireann, passed by the Dáil and Seanad, approved by the people in a referendum, before it was signed into law by the president.
