Thursday
18Feb2010

Integrity in Public and Private Life

DateThursday, February 18, 2010 at 11:53AM

 

Crescent Townhouse Hotel, 13 Lower Crescent, Belfast, BT7 1NR

The next meeting of the Group will be on Saturday 20th March, 10.30 for 11 am finishing at 1 pm. Anyone may attend.

We’re pleased to have with us Malachi O’Doherty the broadcaster and journalist and the author of Ireland’s Retreat from Religion; The Trouble with Guns; I was a Teenage Catholic and The Telling Year, 1972.

Whether one is a politician, a banker, a religious or a sportsman is it possible to separate the values one espouses in public life from those of one’s private life and vice versa? It’s an old question but seems remarkably relevant today with a tidal-wave of moral, political and financial scandals rocking the public’s confidence and leading to an unhealthy cynicism about the probity all politicians and formerly respected institutions.

Malachi O’Doherty, having written extensively on these matters, is well-placed to lead a discussion on these matters.

There will be coffee from 10.30 and we’ll start at 11. Malachi will talk for about half and hour and then there’ll be an opportunity for discussion.

The Crescent Townhouse is near the railway station on Botanic Avenue.

You must let me know if it’s your intention to attend, either by emailing me or ringing me at 028 90871678.

 

Wes Holmes, Hon. Sec

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Thursday
10Dec2009

Letter to a Young Dissident

DateThursday, December 10, 2009 at 3:44PM

Following a conversation with a young republican, a member of the Group responded thus.

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Thursday
10Dec2009

Response to Murphy Report (Irish Times)

DateThursday, December 10, 2009 at 2:46PM

The exposure, in the Ryan report and the Murphy report, has had a number of effects, not all of them detrimental. Society will be encouraged to be more openly critical of its institutions and, as a result, may oblige institutional officers to become more accountable to those over whom they hold power or influence. In turn, the citizens may feel more able to criticise directly those in responsibility if it is felt they are abusing their power and influence.

Also, the suffering inflicted over many years on so many of our abused citizens, and the residue of guilt, regret, remorse, anxiety, depression, may at last have been alleviated.

Nevertheless, the pathology has been so endemic that investigation should not stop with the Dublin diocese nor be confined by any quasi-geographical border or sectarian boundary. Alan Shatter, TD, called on the Government to “engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown . . . to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland”.

By no stretch of imagination is it likely that the Roman Catholic Church clergy have been the only guilty offenders in these respects. Yet again, Kincora comes to mind.

Any further investigation should seek to unearth paedophilia, from the slightest degree to the most revoltingly violent. No school, church or other social institution or organisation should any longer be immune from suspicion until all those who have suffered this scourge have been given the opportunity to let go of its effects.

Without compromising the laws of the state regarding such hateful and destructive acts, admission may also have some redemptive effect on the perpetrators, similar to that obtained by the process of restorative justice. All schools throughout Britain and Ireland, especially those which still house or which have housed boarders, should now be thoroughly investigated to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the desire to have this vile practice eliminated. 

JOHN ROBB

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Sunday
20Sep2009

Peter Robinson’s statement on voting 

DateSunday, September 20, 2009 at 9:19AM

Peter Robinson’s statement on voting procedures in the Assembly is both thought provoking and contradictory. His criticism of the designations is positive; his statement – “dup Ministers would insist that all decisions will only be taken by consensus and we will not use our votes to override their opposition” – is most welcome; and his quotation – We will not find answers in old dogmas – is equally positive. But then he contradicts himself and suggests weighted majority voting. This ancient methodology – first advocated, by the way, in the 13th century for the election of the Pope – is similar to simple majority voting for it is also adversarial. It still reduces the question, no matter how complex, to a two-option, for-or-against vote, that or a series of such votes.

Click to read more ...

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Thursday
17Jul2008

Welcome to our revamped site

DateThursday, July 17, 2008 at 9:37PM

 

The site has now been re-designed, and will be up-dated in the New Year.

The New Ireland Group seeks an island, not only at peace with itself, but at peace both with our immediate neighbours and the rest of the world, as well as with our future generations. We long for a society which is based on a consensual democracy: 

  • a society which thrives to live by international human rights, an ethical trade policy, and a sustainable economy;
  • a society which welcomes refugees from lands afflicted by wars and/or natural disasters;
  • a society which plays no part in foreign wars such as that which is currently raging in Iraq;
  • a society where peoples of both genders and all backgrounds share political power;
  • a society which treasures the natural resources for which it is the guardian;
  • a society which understands that the world is one, that everything is connected, and that our species will survive only if we, along with all other peoples, learn to live within sustainable parameters.

 

 

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