Category: Culture Matters

The dangerous arrogance of victors

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

Is there not something terribly arrogant about this?

“There is no doubt about the fact that the president reflects this country,” David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s senior strategist said. “He put together a broad coalition that reflected the country. At the end of the day, elections are not just about metrics; they’re about people.”

Obama, his campaign and his philosophy is supported by a little over half of the voting electorate of the United States. Yet he is now described as the mirror of his nation. That sounds dangerously totalitarian to me. Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in twentieth-century Ireland reputedly once said that he could look into his heart and know what the will of the Irish people was. Recollection of this is generally accompanied with a bout of laughter.

But in Obama’s case it is no laughing matter. It is a forewarning of a political campaign of marginalization of 50 percent of the people of the United States. If Obama and his administration proceed to govern on the basis of this “vision” of itself then it could be taken as nothing short of a declaration of a cold civil war – a war he had already started in his first term with policies which trample on the religious freedom of many of the citizens of the US.

American independence from the British Empire came about when the Mother of Parliaments chose to ignore the legitimate rights and liberties of its loyal subjects in the 13 colonies. After about ten years of struggle to find a way of  living freely and peacefully within what they considered their true skin as people of the wider British community, these loyal subjects saw that they could no longer abide the suppression of their rights. Consequently they rose – very reluctantly – in bloody rebellion and won their rights back.

Mr Axelrod said the Republican party “has some soul-searching to do”. On the contrary, it is Mr. Axelrod, Mr. Obama and the Democratic which has to look into its soul and nip in the bud, the totalitarian seed which they will find there.

Exit polls, we are told, showed 56 per cent of self-described moderates voted for Mr Obama; only 41 per cent for Mr Romney. I don’t know what these “metrics” are meant to tell us. They are certainly not telling us very much about people. Every dictator who ever existed thought of himself as a moderate.

Obama – the anti-American’s American?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

Everyone is now aware that if the rest of the Western world’s electorates had votes in Tuesday’s US election, Barack Obama would be shoe-in. Why? Because that world is still anti-American and it is myth-making to say that Obama has changed that.

Charles Moore, in today’s Daily Telegraph, gives us a very interesting reading of the two opposing cultures represented in next week’s American election. In it he observes how badly a myopic and delusional European media establishment has misread it all in their fascination and adulation of the Obama presidency of the past four years. They do not see that Mr. Obama is not in fact what he appears to be.

In Britain and, even more, in continental Europe, the people who bring their fellow citizens the news do not really see this. To them, Mr Obama’s combination of historically persecuted ethnicity and posh seminar tone is just perfect. It satisfies their mildly Left-wing consciences and fits in with their cultural assumptions. The chief of these is that the excesses of the West, especially of America, are the biggest problem in the world. Mr Obama comes as near to saying this as anyone trying to win American votes ever could. His “apology tour” to the Middle East early in his presidency remains, for the European elites, the best thing he has ever done. He is the anti-Americans’ American.
Mitt Romney is not. Although he is a moderate Republican, it is fascinating how profoundly he clashes culturally with Obama, and, a fortiori, with the European media and political classes.

Read more here.

The first casualty in war, and in elections?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

This is one we really need a “fact check” on: like the facts that make up the definition of what a practising Catholic is. This is eligible for the classic example of the half-truth – or even .099 of the truth: In a campaign video released this week, Vice President Joe Biden claims that President Obama shares his belief in the social teachings of the Catholic Church. We have no doubt about that. What is in doubt is the correspondence between what the VP believes and the social teaching of the Catholic Church – or any of its other teachings for that matter.

For the video on YouTube go to LifeSite News here.

Questions to answer?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

The Irish Times reported today that the country’s Minister for Health James Reilly has again been taken to task by the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker in the Irish parliament) for failing to answer a Dáil question about primary care centres.

But in the light of the revelations in one of the country’s newspapers last week perhaps he has even more serious questions to answer – like the question of the position of the new CEO, Dr. Tony O’Brien, whom he has appointed to the Health Service Executive?

Sam Coulter Smith, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal College of Surgeons, was quoted las Saturday as saying that he was “shocked and very disappointed” to learn that Irish women who travel to Britain for abortions are being told they should hide this from their doctors. This advice was given to them by agents of the Irish Family Planning Association

Dr. O’Brien, the new HSE chief, was  Chief Executive of the Irish Family Planning Association from December 1991 to August 2002. He was also Chief Executive of the UK Family Planning Association from May 1995 to April 1996, an organisation which is even more suspect that its Irish equivalent, when it comes to cavalier approaches to women’s and children’s health.

Was advice like this being given to women under Dr. O’Brien’s watch at the IFPA?

In the light of last week’s revelations there has now been a call by members of the Oireachtas (parliamentary) Committee on Health and Children for an independent review of counselling practices at IFPA and HSE crisis pregnancy counselling clinics. The Irish Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the call.

Perhaps the country’s “paper of record”, the Irish Times, will now no longer be able to ignore this 5-day-old story if it is forced on to the records of the Oireachtas.

Reported in today’s Irish Independent, Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, said he would be contacting the HSE as a matter of urgency to “seek clarification on the nature, independence and partiality of their inquiry”.

His concerns were echoed by other members of the Committee including TDs Regina Doherty, Denis Naughton, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Robert Troy, Mattie McGrath and Senator John Crown.

Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said: “We welcome the fact that the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children are treating the findings of the undercover investigation with the seriousness they deserve.  It is vital that an independent review takes place without delay. These findings transcend the abortion debate.  The type of counselling shown by the undercover investigation to take place at IFPA and HSE pregnancy counselling clinics quite literally puts women’s lives at risk.

She continued “We are calling for an independent public inquiry into how such professional malpractice has been allowed to go unnoticed and uncorrected by the body legally tasked with monitoring them. Since the Health Service Executive (HSE) are themselves implicated in the failure of proper governance of the crisis pregnancy agencies, they are part of the problem and cannot be allowed to supervise the investigation.”

“The reality is that the Irish taxpayer is subsidising counsellors to give unsafe information to women.   This must be investigated promptly and thoroughly” Dr. Cullen concluded.

See link to today’s Irish Independent report  – HSE chiefs face grilling over illegal advice on abortion. See link to reports from last Saturday’s Irish Independent Shocking breach of good medical practice says Rotunda Chief and Revealed – The Abortion advice that could put lives at risk

So what is the real agenda?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

After all this will they still be proclaiming themselves as the guardians of women’s health?

In today’ s Irish Independent,  Gemma O’Doherty reports a shocking story which puts this big question-mark over the self-advertising of the Irish Family Planning Association, an affiliate of International Planned Parenthood Federation.

A “Shocking breach of good medical practice” is how the Master of one of the country’s major maternity hospitals describes the abortion advice given at IFPA centres throughout the country which could put lives at risk. O’Doherty’s report follows.

STAFF at some taxpayer-funded pregnancy counselling services are putting women’s lives at risk and breaking the law, an undercover probe has revealed.

The investigation was carried out over several months by a team of women, some from the pro-life movement, who secretly recorded counsellors at 11 locations around the country.

Some of the advice they gave about abortion was illegal, according to a leading lawyer, and some was medically dangerous, a top doctor says.

In several instances, women were told to hide their abortions from their doctors, a course of action that could endanger life if post-surgery abortion complications remain undiagnosed.

A small percentage of women suffer perforation of the womb following terminations, which can remain undetected but can cause problems in later pregnancies.

The Irish Independent has viewed and listened to the investigation tapes.

Following a five-hour examination of the material, the HSE has launched an investigation.

A spokesperson said that any potential breaches of the legislation will be pursued.

Gardai at Dublin’s Store Street station are also looking into the findings of the probe.

At the Dundalk office of the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), a client was told she could lie to her doctor about having had an abortion, advice that could put a woman’s life at risk, Professor Sam Coulter Smith, the master of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, has warned.

He said he was aware of cases where women have died because they did not tell their doctors they’d had a termination.

At two Dublin branches of the IFPA in Tallaght and Cathal Brugha Street, women were also told they could conceal their abortions from doctors.

The same advice was given by a HSE employee at Ballinasloe Crisis Pregnancy Support Service in Galway.

In response, Dr Simon Mills, a barrister and medical doctor, said: “It is definitely reckless and probably negligent advice to tell a woman to conceal from doctors something that may be a vital part of her medical history.

“This is especially the case if she presented unwell in the immediate aftermath of a termination and felt that she shouldn’t tell her doctor about it when it could be the key piece of information to deliver prompt and life-saving treatment.

“If somebody turned around and said the reason I didn’t tell my doctor was because a counsellor told me it wasn’t necessary, civil liability would almost certainly arise and I think it is possible that criminal liability could too.”

The revelations come a week after the first private abortion clinic on the island of Ireland opened its doors in Belfast.

The investigation was carried out by a group of women posing as pregnant clients. The research team, made up of 30 people, included teachers, lawyers and doctors. Some of them come from the pro-life movement.

They instigated the probe after receiving information that some pregnancy advice centres may be breaking the law.

The clinics involved are overseen and funded by the HSE’s Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP).

This state body was set up to cut the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of Irish women travelling for abortions by making the other two options of parenting and adoption more ‘attractive’.

At the Tallaght and Cork branches of the IFPA, women were told how to get an abortion pill, which is illegal here, by smuggling it into the State through Northern Ireland.

The HSE has confirmed that crisis pregnancy counsellors should not provide information on how to get the abortion pill.

The pills induce an abortion by causing a miscarriage. They should only be taken under medical supervision because they can cause bleeding, severe infection or, in rare instances, death.

A leading constitutional lawyer, Paul Anthony McDermott, has said that telling somebody how to access and take an illegal drug could be seen as “aiding and abetting a crime”.

Some of the results of the undercover recording show:

– At Dundalk IFPA, a woman was told: “Now when you go for medical attention they have no way of knowing that you have had an abortion. You need to say that you had a miscarriage. They will know you were pregnant but you need to say that you had a miscarriage.”

– A counsellor at Tallaght IFPA told a woman how to import the abortion pill illegally. She said: “If you have an address in the North or you can buy a PO box number, and get them to send it . . . You can. . . then go and collect the tablets in the North and take them down here.”

– At the Sexual Health Centre in Cork, another woman was told how to get an abortion pill. Her counsellor said: “I suppose I’m not encouraging you to break the law or get into trouble . . . but it can be done.”

She also admitted that giving this sort of advice could get her arrested.

According to the HSE’s CPP, information given by counselling services about abortion must be truthful, objective and must not involve the ‘promotion or advocacy’ of it.

Last year, more than €3.1m of public money was spent on crisis pregnancy services overseen by the HSE.

A spokeswoman for the organisation said the CPP would “agree whatever measures necessary with these agencies to ensure that the highest possible standard in crisis pregnancy counselling is provided within the existing legal framework”.

In a statement, the IFPA said that “all of its counsellors set out to work in adherence with the law” and that its services operate “under protocols and procedures which take into account all legislative requirements”.

An offer to review the audio and video evidence from the probe was declined by the organisation.

It was furnished with the transcripts of the investigation by the Irish Independent three weeks ago.

Eilis Mulroy, a Galway-based solicitor who was part of the research team and is a member of the pro-life movement, said: “We had heard that questionable practices were going on.

“The 1995 Abortion Information Act is very clear when it comes to the obligations of counsellors and the information they are allowed to give.

“But our investigation found that this legislation is being breached on a wide scale and that Irish women in crisis pregnancies are getting dangerous medical advice.

“This reflects a high level of contempt for their health and well-being, not to mention the law.”

Last night, the Irish Medicines Board expressed “grave concern and disappointment” that healthcare professionals would give advice on how to source illegal medicines.

A spokesperson said: “This contradicts our consistent warnings against such practices. We would additionally be concerned in relation to abortifacients in that self-medication is not appropriate for such products.”

The most recent statistics show that 4,149 Irish women had terminations in Britain in 2011.

The revelations come as an expert group set up by Health Minister James Reilly prepares to publish a report on whether abortion should be legalised in Ireland under limited circumstances.

– Gemma O’Doherty

Exploring integrity

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture Matters1 Comment
Hugh Linehan, Dearbhail McDonald, Seamus Dooley, Blair Jenkins and Paddy Murray - the panel for the discussion on the Leveson Inquiry.
Hugh Linehan, Dearbhail McDonald, Seamus Dooley, Blair Jenkins and Paddy Murray – the panel for the discussion on the Leveson Inquiry.

It was low-key – something over  one hundred people, representing a generation span spread over about 60 years, and it took place in a relatively small venue which serves as a home for about a dozen university students. But it was high-end in every other way you looked at it –  theme, quality of presentation, depth and vigour and a panel of speakers to die for.

It was the biennial Cleraun Media Conference , held in Cleraun University Centre in Dublin, Ireland. Its theme was professional integrity and ethics in the context of conflict resolution journalism – which must look a little like an oxymoron to many who associate journalism with the promotion of  what it thrives on, conflict generation  rather than conflict resolution. But resolving that paradox was what the conference was all about and what it did in a very deep and penetrating way  – both in the presentations from journalists and film makers from the very top of the media pyramid, and in the questions and discussion from Ireland’s top media practitioners and students from its third-level media schools.

Over three days, from the opening on Friday to its conclusion on Sunday, participants heard from documentary producers, directors, editors and presenters of the calibre of Peter Taylor of BBC’s Panorama, Stefan Ronovicz (editor of  the 2010 BAFTA winner, Terror in Mumbai), and the veteran  and universally admired flim-maker, George Carey. The audience was riveted listening to Paul Conroy, Sunday Times photographer who is still recovering from the injuries he received in Syria in the targeted military attack which took the lives of his colleagues Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik earlier this year.

From the home front there were film makers Alan Gilsenan , Steve Desmond, and Trevor Birney, Barbara O’Shea and Anne Cadwallader, and the icing on that particular cake, Kevin Bakhurst, the new MD of News and Current Affairs in RTE, post Mission to Prey scandal. Hugh Lenihan, Dearbhail McDonald, Paddy Murray, and Blair Jenkins OBE – formerly of BBC Scotland and STV – participated in a panel which dissected the proceedings, so far, of the Leveson Inquiry in Britain. This was  moderated by the Irish Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, a former political correspondent with The Irish Press and columnist with The Sunday Times.

At the end of the conference Blair Jenkins was presented with the Cleraun Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism, a contribution which had it most recent manifestation in the publication of his recent report for the Carnegie UK Trust, Better Journalism in the Digital Age, on journalism ethics and regulation.

But if that line-up was impressive the outcomes were no less so and the impact of the three days’ proceeding was well reflected in the constant tweeting from the conference by the media students attending, picking up and recirculating the insights and observations which were coming hot and heavy from the speakers in their presentations and in their follow-up Q and A sessions.

No summary can really do justice to what went on at this conference and the best place to get a taste of it all will be to go to the Dublin Institute of Technology’s Journalism School soundcloud and (later) YouTube webcast of the proceedings which should be posted over the next few days, and in due course on the conference’s own webpage.

But if one line of thought could summarise the outcome, it was the clear conviction presented by all the speakers and taken away by all the participants that, when it comes down to it, integrity comes from the inner life of the human subject, not from rules and regulations – necessary though they may be. There was a good deal of talk about the soulless DNA of certain publications needing to be replicated in the DNA of people who wanted to be successful journalists within those organisations. But it was clear that if the DNA of those human beings lacked the chromosomes of common decency and human courtesy then it was bye-bye to any hope for integrity and ethics in conflict-resolution journalism or any other kind of journalism you care to mention.

Last, but not the least significant element in this entire venture was the heavy-hitter sponsorship which it attracted and which – presumably – made it possible: RTE, Ireland’s public broadcasting service, The Irish Times,  the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the Office of the Press Ombudsman, The Carnegie UK Trust, the Irish Farmers’ Journal, and the screen training division of FAS, the Irish National Training and Employment Authority.

Last words – Jenny McGovern’s tweet at the end of the conference: Jenny McGovern ‏@Jenabelle4@Cleraun GREAT JOB!!!

Does this not make an awful – and awesome – lot of sense?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

I found this interesting comment on a post – equally interesting, as well as being disturbing – on the Conjugality blog this morning:
Fr. Bill MCNeeley commented on Marriage = biology (not bigotry) with this: It reminds me of when in my senior year of an Episcopal Church seminary (I am now Catholic) and one of my classmates said, “Conservatives in the church can hit the road if they do not like inclusive language.” I pointed out that such a statement is not inclusive. She replied “Oh, it’s okay to exclude those who are not inclusive.”

See the video here.

Regrettably, the end of the line

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture Matters1 Comment

Perhaps a day will come when this decision can be reversed. Today, with a heavy heart, I sent this to the subscriptions department of The Irish Times.

Regrettably, because of what seems to me to be an inbuilt editorial bias towards the so-called pro-choice side in the ongoing debate on abortion I wish to cancel my subscription for morning delivery of the Irish Times. I say “so-called” because we are all, hopefully, pro-choice. What we should be judged on is the justice of the choices we make. 

I have no wish to provide funding for what appears to be an extension of a campaign to introduce abortion legislation to Ireland.  I am not referring to the free expression of opinion on the issue, either by columnists or leader writers  My concern is about a bias I find in the treatment of news stories.
One small example is the burying of Patsy McGarry’s minimal news coverage of the Irish Bishops’  pastoral initiative at the bottom right hand corner of page 6 yesterday (cf some observations on this in a post on http://www.garvan.wordpress.com). 
Another example would be your sub-editorial treatment – the report itself was fair enough – of the medical conference on maternal health a few weeks ago. This spoke volumes to me about your lack of openness to any positive pro-life stories in the news. Had that conference produced a story which would have served the cause of introducing abortion legislation here I have very little doubt but that it would have got a much more explicit headline and an much better space than the far-left column of a right hand page. I cannot judge about what is happening on the letters page but I have anecdotal evidence that many people on the pro-life side do send letters which never see the light of day.
My observation to you would be that while your by-lined reporters try to be reasonably objective, your anonymous sub-editors are playing a different game.
 
Yours sincerely
 

Michael Kirke.

Is the “paper of record” troubling consciences?

On By Michael KirkeIn Culture MattersLeave a comment

Well what do you know? The “paper of record” has done it again. If you wanted some detailed news about what the leaders of the Catholic Church in Ireland is offering to its followers this weekend by way of information and encouragement to take a stand consistent with the belief and moral teachings of the institution they have freely chosen to follow, which paper would you go to? Not the paper of record.

Below are the three reports from Saturday morning’s Irish broadsheets. The Irish independent gives us nearly 400 words in its comprehensive summary of what the Irish bishops have issued to the parishes throughout the county. The Irish Examiner gives us over 200 and a good report. The Irish Times, however, gives us just over 150 words from its renowned even-handed religious affairs correspondent and buries the story at the bottom right hand corner of page six, probably one of the most “invisible” news slots in any newspaper.

Wonderful – and this after last week’s numbers debacle where the Times reported – apparently under “tweeting” pressure from the pro-abortion people –  that “several” thousand protesters thronged the ranks of a pro-choice street demonstration in Dublin last weekend when in fact a serious count using the video images from the demo showed that the number did not even reach one thousand.

Combine this observation with everything else we have been reading in the Irish Times in the past few months pertaining to the abortion issue and it is very hard not to conclude that here we have a paper which has deliberately set it face in the direction of the Mecca of introducing abortion legislation into Ireland.

What choice has a conscientious person who considers that such legislation, if put on the statute books of this country, would lead to the wholesale taking of the innocent lives of babies awaiting delivery from their mothers’ wombs? One choice, I think – if they are paying subscribers to that paper.  Cancel their subscription because it looks very much like a financial subscription to a cause supporting that wholesale slaughter.

Irish independent

Church launches new anti-abortion campaign

By Luke Byrne, Saturday October 06 2012

The Catholic Church will tomorrow begin a public campaign to oppose access to abortion in Ireland under any circumstances.

A pastoral message is to be read out at Mass opposing abortion and earlier this week all 1,360 parishes north and south of the Border were sent material on the church’s opposition to abortion, including homily notes, prayers, and posters.

The move is being seen as the opening salvo in the church’s campaign to lobby against access to abortion here.

It follows a promise by Cardinal Sean Brady in August that priests would be provided with the resources to campaign on the issue.

The homily notes have suggested that tomorrow’s first Bible reading come from the creation account of life from Genesis. “This provides an ideal context in which to speak of the beauty and sanctity of human life as part of the gift of God’s creation,” it said.

A prayer card has also been provided for parishioners. Along with a prayer, the card will say: “As science makes clear it is at fertilisation that a new, unique and genetically complete human being comes into existence.”

Responding to the planned campaign, Senator Ivana Bacik said she believed that the church’s moral power had been “significantly weakened” by the sexual abuse scandals.

“I think it’s disheartening that the church still thinks it can dictate to women regarding sexual health matters,” she said.

“I think the church should get its own house in order,” she added.

The church has also called for a month of prayer dedicated to the theme of ‘Choose Life’ to begin tomorrow, which it has called ‘Day for Life Sunday’.

The literature has told priests that it is not necessary for the Government to legislate for legal abortion in Ireland following the 2010 European Court of Human Rights case against the State.

Instead, it said that the Government “could choose to protect the life of the unborn baby in the womb” by changing the Constitution to set aside the Supreme Court ruling in the ‘X-case’.

As part of the campaign, the bishops’ conference has also commissioned a website at www.chooselife2012.ie

Ms Bacik said that the issues of the ‘X-case’ have twice been put to referendum and both times Ireland supported safe abortion in the case where a mother’s life was at risk.

Irish Examiner

Church to launch pro-life campaign with messages to Mass-goers

By Juno McEnroe, Political Reporter, Saturday, October 06, 2012

The Catholic Church will launch its pro-life campaign this weekend with anti- abortion messages for Mass- goers, posters in churches, and testimonies from women who have experienced crisis pregnancy.

The campaign details, letters, and materials have been sent to 1,360 parishes ahead of the release of the Government’s expert group report on abortion.

Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, recently said the Church would run a campaign against legalising abortion in Ireland.

Cardinal Brady said the State was not obliged to legislate for abortion as a result of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on the so-called ABC case, which the expert group is addressing.

The “choose life” campaign will run for the next four weeks. Notes sent to priests on homilies read: “Any mother or father who has gazed in wonder at an ultrasound scan of their baby, or heard his or her heart beating for the first time, will know how rapid and beautiful is the development of their baby in the womb.”

Priests are also being advised to tell Mass-goers the Government should introduce laws or a constitutional amendment that would set aside the Supreme Court ruling in the X case, which allowed for abortion in some circumstances.

The Irish Times

Bishops launch anti-abortion month

PATSY McGARRY

Ireland’s Catholic bishops have called on “all who believe in the equal dignity and beauty of every human life” to “join us in calling on our public representatives to respect the humanity and life of children in the womb and to reject abortion.”

The bishops made their appeal in a special pastoral message which will be read and distributed in all Catholic parishes on the island this weekend. It coincides with “Day for Life Sunday” tomorrow, which also marks the start of a month of prayer around the theme “Choose Life!”, announced last month.

Relevant “Choose Life!” material was sent to all 1,360 Catholic parishes in Ireland this week to promote the month of prayer campaign. A special website chooselife2012.iehas been launched with a complementary Choose Life! presence on social media (Choose Life 2012 on Facebook, and @Chooselife2012 on Twitter and on YouTube).

The bishops said their message was for people of all backgrounds and traditions across the island.