We cremated my friend James on the freakishly warm Friday before St Patrick’s Day, between the two bouts of even freakier snow. We did this after a celebration of the Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ who was his Saviour and the anchor of his life. The daffodils bobbed in the sunshine as we took his coffin through the traffic from the church in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral to the crematorium in East Finchley, his terminus ad quem …
Two interesting blasts from non-natives in the abortion debate have appeared in – can you guess? Yes! – in the Guardian and the Independent. In the Indy, London-based Siobhan Fenton has been combing the statistics just out, to find that that 828 women who had abortions in England and Wales last year gave Northern Ireland addresses and 3754 were recorded as coming from the Republic. Almost certainly these figures are an underestimate, the real NI figure being around 2000, according …
Disregarding the teaching of the Catholic Church, the Irish voted overwhelmingly in favour of equal marriage. Quite the collapse of power. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
So the homosexual marriage referendum passed in the Republic. As Mick noted below this makes Northern Ireland the only place in the UK and Ireland without same sex marriage though not the only place in the British Isles. The Isle of Mann has civil partnership but not homosexual marriage whilst Jersey in the Channel Isles has civil partnerships and is considering homosexual marriage. More interesting perhaps is Guernsey’s proposal of “Union Civile” which allows for partnerships between any two people …
Christians in Northern Ireland haven’t had the best of press lately; ‘gay’ cakes and court cases, same sex marriage and even one would-be MP who wanted to bring back corporal punishment. Nolan (BBC1 20th May) even interviewed Joshua Feuerstein, who most right wing American Christians would consider to be far right wing. But the Christian church in Northern Ireland is changing; it is, as they say, a ‘broad church’. Over the past months, in all those stories, I have yet …
James D. is well known to many people on Twitter as @jdtips . Apart from reading odds and giving many betting tips he is also an advocate of a No vote in the upcoming referendum on same sex marriage. Having heard the case for the ‘Yes’ vote he now lays out his case for people to hear. I believe that a vast majority of people who support same-sex marriage are well intentioned and people of good will. They are upstanding …
I support Marriage Equality and I’d vote yes in the Referendum this week if I weren’t a disenfranchised Irish citizen simply because I live in the north of the island. That’s a column for another day though… It’s a safe bet that both the “Yes” and “No” sides in this Friday’s Marriage Referendum will agree that voter turnout will be key to whether the proposal to amend the Constitution passes or fails. Having had a quick look on the Elections …
Séamas de Faoite writes in favour of the Marriage Referendum and relates his own experience to illustrate the ongoing anguish faced by young gay people in their decision in how and when and to whom they can ‘come out’. ‘Can we talk?’ – it was the refrain of one of my preferred comedians, the ever polemic Joan Rivers, before her untimely death in 2014. She used it as an opener to her more controversial sketches; almost asking the audience’s permission to push the …
So, An Taoiseach announced in his Prime Time interview last night that same sex marriage is “a question that will be put very clearly to the people. I expect it will be on 22 May.” That’s a reference to the fact that to get through any statute allowing same sex marriage that poor battered book of basic rules (aka the Irish Constitution) has to be amended by Referendum. Now if the polls are anything to go by, it should be a walk in the …
“I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative, I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.’’ – British Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron, Oct, 2011. Following Mick’s link to Tim Montgomerie’s conservative case for gay marriage, it is well worth paying tribute to Andrew Sullivan, the Tory-American writer who literally wrote the book, Virtually Normal, on gay marriage. It’s forgotten how unpopular the idea of gay marriage was on the left, particularly the gay left, …
So, one of my favourite Tories Tim Montgomerie, spoke last night on his change of heart on Gay Marriage with Dominic Lawson… It’s interesting from a number of angles, not least that his motivation was to make social conservatism popular again, and to open what he sees as a key conservative institution (marriage) to people who might otherwise become alienated from other conservative institutions. So, for those genuinely interested, I’m just putting it here. [Please do try to resist the urge to comment …
Ian Paisley Jnr has caused a bit of a storm following his appearance on BBC Question Time earlier this week. His views on gay marriage (video clip here) provoked a twitter backlash (featured in yesterday’s Irish News) and led to several on air clashes with fellow contributors and members of the audience. What Paisley Junior had to say was nothing new to people living here, but the British audience of the programme will not have been used to hearing the …
John O Neill identifies the interesting paradox that while abortion and civil marriage appears to have united north and south Catholic and mainstream Protestant politicians, it’s the all- Ireland parties, above all Sinn Fein or elements of it , that have making the “progressive” case. Not that the advocacy has been clear or consistent, as Slugger posts have lovingly traced. But now, the raging debates have even attracted the attention of the Economist in an article where it identifies the new …
The News Letter and the Antrim Guardian have both reported that Justice Minister David Ford has ‘agreed’ to step down from his duties as an elder at Second Donegore Presbyterian Church in County Antrim, as a result of his vote in favour of civil marriage equality. This seems to have been the result of what has clearly been quite serious pressure in what the News Letter describes as “months of private meetings” at the sub-regional body to which Second Donegore …
Gerry Lynch has had a couple of contributions recently on the subject of extending marriage to homosexual couples. The coalition’s legislation has often been called “Equal Marriage”. Historically the marriage of a man and a woman has been heavily discriminated in favour of by legislation. This has been justified by moral and religious positions, discussion of the benefits of marriage between a man and a woman as a building block for society, a platform for the bringing up of children …
Oh dear. When Stephen told Arlene the truth about Gay Marriage. [She needs to get an upgrade for that religion as civil law App – Ed] Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
I think I heard someone say on Nolan this morning that Northern Ireland may be the only place in the UK that does not accord marriage status to same sex partnerships, if (or when) the Scottish Parliament brings forth the appropriate legislation… Well, not at the moment, there’s no plans for change in England or Wales… Rather worryingly the Scots plan seems to include an extension of some aspects of employment legislation to protect individual ministers or priests from any …
In the latest twister among the ecclesiastical storms over gay marriage, Simon Jenkins in fine form denounces the obscurantism of the Church of England.(P.S. First time round, I missed Mick on dear old Ken who on this one isn’t yet wise enough to be embarrassed in polite company). In their latest move calculated to raise the stakes with political opinion, the C of E is fulfilling its modern self-appointed role and speaking for all denominations including the Catholics. Jenkins , an agnostic who …
To most of us who don’t count ourselves as Anglicans, the Church of Ireland is something of a mystery… But in advance of any future departure of the current Archbishop of Armagh’s departure, all hell seems to have broken loose at last week’s Synod (over sex, as Alan notes below), as various factions compete for pole position. It’s not as though there’s a huge slate of candidates. Beyond Harper himself there is a long/shortlist of just eleven candidates from the …
So Cardinal Keith O’Brien thinks gay marriage is grotesque. His church will be lining up to oppose the enactment by HMG to give civil partnership an equal status with traditional marriage between a man and a woman. In the meantime, the Church of Ireland, who’s official position is no different from that of the (Roman) Catholic church are, instead of lobbying the government, planning to have a debate: Canon Ellis said there had been a serious debate within his church …
