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The author reflects on the abuse of children by members of religious groups and particularly within religious institutions. It also discusses various news papers considering child and institutional abuse, using publicly available evidence after legal investigations. McLoone-Richards and David Pilgrim express their views in their news papers. It concludes that the person who has been abused in their childhood should be listened to, taken seriously, and given the support and care they require.

The reputation of the Irish Catholic Church has been damaged, maybe irrevocably, by the extensive evidence of child abuse in its midst. This paper summarises the evidence for that crisis and goes on to offer a multi-factorial and non-reductionist account of the abuse in a wider context. By adopting a systemic approach, this account aims to discern those factors which are peculiar to the Irish case and those that have more general significance for child protection. The Irish case demonstrates a complex set of conditions of possibility for child abuse. Some of these were only relevant to Ireland and the Catholic Church but some were not. In particular, varieties of systemic isolation and the a priori social marginalisation of victims are important to consider as salient risk factors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Religious settings are sites of vulnerability for children., The Catholic Church has been under particular scrutiny internationally about child abuse in its midst., The Irish Church warrants additional scrutiny because of the enmeshment of State and Church., However, child abuse can be found in other countries, in other denominations and in secular organisations., These general and particular features are best understood using a systemic framework to avoid reductionist accounts of abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that discourse on community as a socio-political problem needs to be located within historical, institutional, and socio-structural contexts if it is to be properly understood. In particular, it suggests that the role of religion in promoting forms of communitarian discourse and practice needs to be given greater attention than it has hitherto received within the social sciences. The article pursues this argument through examination of the religious discourse on community cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By providing an analysis of its role in Catholic responses to three major socio-political crises in Ireland between the 1890s and 1960s, the paper suggests that not only does socio-religious discourse on community constitute a powerful alternative to secular social-scientific discourses, but that such discourse is particularly effective in helping to constitute specific groups as communities, given favourable sociological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the categorization of migrant workers shapes their reception. In an experiment with Northern Irish Protestants we manipulated the representation of Poland to make the Catholicism of Polish migrants either more, or less, salient. Furthermore, judgements of Polish migrants were obtained under conditions designed to encourage participants to believe that sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland was either resolved, or still a strong feature of the present social landscape. Overall, results showed that when Poland's Catholicism was salient, participants were less welcoming of Polish migrants. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by increases in the level of symbolic threat participants believed the migrants posed to participants' (Protestant) community identity. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions the simplistic terms in which the Irish university question in conventionally understood. Awareness of the Catholic Church, legislators and influential lay people on the potential impact of the university on the future ruling class of Ireland; Conflict between the British government and the Catholic hierarchy; Compromise from all major participants in the debate in 1908.

From the Act of Union until 1884, the Irish electoral franchise was different from that in England or Scotland. The history of its reform also followed a different calendar: 1829, 1832, 1850, and 1868 were the waypoints on the path to homogenisation with the rest of the United Kingdom. But the Irish Reform Act of 1868 has received little attention, and is usually dismissed as a minor technical alteration of minimal political or social importance. When set against the changes in England the year before, this is true. But it is worthy of study, and this essay is the first to examine the 1860s campaign for Irish reform, its relationship to events in Britain, the expectations for the act, its various drafts, and its political consequences. It traces the short-lived alliance between the Catholic Church, the Irish Liberal Party and often secular working-class radicals in both Ireland and England, as well as the parallel, but quite distinct, campaign for reform on the part of working-class northern protestants, many associated with the Orange Order. Although political circumstance resulted in the abandonment of most of the projected reforms, the drafting process and accompanying debates reveal important aspects of Irish political realities and expectations, as well as the limits of parliamentary interest in Ireland. Even in its abbreviated form, the act had a significant impact on Irish politics, substantially increasing the borough electorate across the island and dramatically so in Ulster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To trace the evolution of Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland from its establishment there in 1946, focusing on the efforts of early members to publicize the fellowship and negotiate a role for themselves in relation to existing religious and healthcare institutions. Methods Archival research, drawing mainly on primary sources in AA archives in New York and Dublin. Results Anticipated tensions between this fellowship, which had its roots in Evangelical Protestantism, and the politically powerful Roman Catholic Church in Ireland were skillfully avoided; initial hostility from the medical profession quickly dissipated; and AA distanced itself from policy debate on the wider topic of alcoholism as disease. Conclusions The relatively smooth introduction of AA to Ireland, the first European country in which it was established, may be attributed to the essentially pragmatic nature of the fellowship and the strategic abilities of its early members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]