Aoife Bannon Latest Hospital Row Is Excuse to Bash Catholic Church – We Shouldn’t Forget the Atrocities but Religious Orders Did a Lot of Good in the Past
By Aoife Bannon
The hysteria this week over the National Maternity Hospital is definite proof of this. There’s been huge outrage as the public grappled with the fact that the new ˆ300million facility is to be built on land owned by the Sisters of Charity, beside St Vincent’s Hospital. We are all aware that the religious order has a tainted history when it comes to mothers. The Magdalene Laundries is a sad part of Irish history that we should never forget. And this week we saw how the contempt many hold the Church in almost derailed the building of the badly needed new maternity hospital.
Former Master of the NMH Dr Peter Boylan spoke out about his grave concerns over the building of the complex on land owned by a religious group, rather than a secular site. Cue public outrage and fury as the nuns who owned the land were branded greedy and evil — or words to that effect — and the masses seemed to agree a fascist-like seizing of the land should take place. This was despite the fact that we had assurances from the experts involved — Minister for Health Simon Harris and hospital’s current Master Dr Rhona Mahony — that there are agreements in place to ensure the Church will have no influence over the running of the hospital. Dr Mahony — who runs the crumbling hospital at Dublin’s Holles Street — has assured us that sterilisation, abortions and other procedures not approved by the Church will continue on the new site. I’m satisfied to take the good doctor at her word, but even if you’re not, there’s also an iron-clad legal clause that says the same thing. However, Ireland’s Church-haters seem to be unwilling or unable to see past their prejudice. Instead of seeing the benefits to the country — a new hospital on land that the Government has acquired for free — they are focusing on the issue of the nuns having overall ownership of the land it’s built on. This is a legal technicality and won’t affect the running of the hospital. But yet we’re continuing to hear an argument that at some point in the future an ageing nun (because most are ageing) may run into the hospital and stamp her sensibly-heeled foot at the doctors and demand that they stop carrying out certain procedures.
At some unspecified moment, the Church-affiliated members of the board may demand the Angelus will be belted out on the hospital’s PA system and that hymns be pumped into the labour wards. Of course some people will call me naive and point again to the past atrocities carried out by the Church. I’m well aware of them, but if anything, this saga is proof that the power of the Church is well over — and it is in fact truly detested by many. What everyone agrees on is that the site is perfect in terms of practicality and the plans will certainly offer greater healthcare to Irish women. I commend Dr Boylan for raising his concerns but I feel they simply inspired mass hysteria among a public all too willing to attack the Church. We shouldn’t forget the atrocities, but let’s also remember that religious orders did a lot of good in the past too. Pregnancy secrets and social media do not mix, it seems SERENA Williams admitted she slipped up this week — by accidentally announcing her pregnancy. I was pretty curious about this one, as to post a snap of yourself in a yellow swimsuit with the caption ‘20 weeks’ is a pretty monumental mistake.
However, the tennis superstar revealed she had been taking the picture for her own records but uploaded it on Snapchat instead. The World No1 said: “I was just saving them [for myself]. I’ve been so good about it, but this was the one time it slipped.” And it seems she’s not the only mum-to-be that has made the same error — with Storm Keating appearing to accidentally reveal the sex of her baby before he was born this week. She posted a snap of a babygro that her stepdaughter Ali had bought for her “brother”, before quickly changing her caption to say “brother/sister”. It seems that pregnancy secrets and social media do not mix. Fashion fans can nab latest must have at IKEA DESIGNER fans will be thrilled to hear they can bag the latest must-have look at, wait for it?.?.?.?IKEA.The Swedish furniture giant’s famous blue hold-all is usually seen stuffed with customers’ hauls of Daim bars, spoons and tea lights.But now French fashion house Balenciaga has released its own version of the 70 cent sack.The most obvious difference between the two is the price tag — with Balenciaga’s costing ˆ1,600 more than its rival.Advertisers for the US arm of the flatpack store were quick to poke fun at the similarities between the two and offer advice on how to recognise a ‘Frakta’ over a Balenciaga.According to IKEA, “if it rustles it’s the real deal” and “a true Frakta is simply rinsed off with a garden hose when dirty”.Anyone who spent ˆ1,600 on the Balenciaga now has a serious case of the blues. Tourism bit off course IRISH tourism chiefs are pure geniuses, if you ask me. The Wild Atlantic Way campaign boosted visitor numbers to our shores and made us take renewed pride in Ireland’s beauty spots. Really, it was simply a project that enhanced access to sites that were always there: the Ring of Kerry, the Cliffs of Moher and Clew Bay, among others. It was a stroke of marketing wizardry. But I’m a little bit confused about Ireland’s Ancient East. According to Failte Ireland, ‘East’ includes Carlow, Cork, Cavan, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Wexford, Waterford and even Westmeath. C’mon, Westmeath’s name gives it away. I’m no geography expert but East it ain’t. That said, the new campaign is impressive and does make me want to pay an overdue visit to Newgrange. I’m just worried that with these blurred boundaries, we’ll miss out on opportunities to market the Marvellous Midland Meanders, the Sumptuous Southern Stretch and the Shannonside Shimmy. Dara and Ed’s tour de farce DARA O Briain and Ed Byrne are men I admire — not necessarily for their comedic skills, but for turning a lads’ holiday into a paid telly series. The duo, who have been pals for over two decades, made a travel show together in 2015 in which they took on a 4,000km trek through the US and Central America.
Dara and Ed’s Great Big Adventure was so successful the pair are back on the road again with Dara and Ed’s Road to Mandalay, which follows them around South East Asia. While I’m sure there’s plenty of work involved, I can’t help but feel envy and admiration for the pair’s ingenious ability to mix business with pleasure. If any television companies want to fund me and my mates on a trip to Ibiza, you know where to find me. Katie in N-bomb uproar IT’S generally accepted that the N-word is inflammatory and its use should not be taken lightly. So it’s no surprise viewers were shocked to hear Katie Price drop the N-bomb twice live on morning TV. She was scolded by host Philip Schofield after using the slur when telling how it had been directed at her son Harvey by racist online bullies. Harvey, who is mixed race, has multiple disabilities and is regularly called the vile words that Katie repeated. If viewers didn’t like hearing the N-word on TV, imagine what it’s like for Katie to see it used to taunt her son. After the show, Katie posted a video on Instagram explaining: “Yes I did use the word n***** because that’s what people call my son. They call him a blind n*****, black spastic. They call him a golliwog. “So I’m glad I made headlines using that word because I can get it out there that it’s not acceptable.” No, it certainly is not. A point well made.
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