everything that has come out reminds me of the comment that the day the NRA won was the day of the sandy hook massacre. because if that doesn't act as a catalyst for change, nothing is going to.
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i heard a claim on the radio that the average age is 76.Surely 95% (if not more) of nuns in the country are over 70 years of age?
Aren't they importing them now, like with the priests? Reverse missionaries.i heard a claim on the radio that the average age is 76.
yes, vicar.Reverse missionaries.
Dr Boylan answered these question on the Pat Kenny show earlierI don't get this at all.
There's a shitload of outrage and speculation and I still have no clue
It seems to me there's a lot of people who relish the opportunity to vent and aren't actually too interested in answering any of the questions above.
- Why do it this way?
- Who want's it done this way?
- Does the order actually want it done this way?
Recent revelations around Tuam have highlighted once again the Catholic church’s influence on Irish life. Its role in housing is often unacknowledged.
In 2015, I did some research on this subject with Kurt Xerri, a Maltese lawyer. We looked at the peripheral European countries of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta and Ireland. These were strongly Catholic countries that had similar housing histories (rented slums), housing policies (pro-ownership) and current housing problems (limited social housing).
A fear of civil unrest over poor worker conditions, coupled with substandard accommodation, drove the church to influence state policies towards developing better housing — not for welfare reasons, but for religious ones. Large families renting and living in small, cramped conditions had led to a fear of incest.
State provision of key services was seen as a form of socialism and dilution of church control, so people were encouraged to turn to their families for help with housing. This allowed governments to gradually reduce their support for housing — as well as in education and health.
Homeownership also bred social conservatism and reduced the potential for workers’ strikes, so this was promoted by the church, via the state. These were common trends across housing policy in the Catholic countries we looked at.
In Ireland, however, the church’s influence was far more pervasive. In 2015, Trinity College academic Ellen Rowley wrote a paper, The Architect, the Planner and the Bishop, which showed that when designing new housing developments in Dublin in the 1940s, the planning department of Dublin Corporation would send its masterplans to Archbishop McQuaid for approval.
When Captain’s Lane, in Crumlin, which these days is better known as Captain’s Road, was being extended in the 1940s, for example, the chief planner insisted the plans be submitted for McQuaid’s approval. If the archbishop rejected the plans, as he regularly did, they would have to be redrafted until acceptable.
The church preferred houses to flats because it saw the latter as “communist” — people were warned to be careful of the “moral dangers of the common staircase”.
The Catholic church’s influence is seen in statues and grottoes on estates
With central housing plans effectively being overseen by the bishop, the church’s influence also permeated house design. The belief was that the lower the density of the housing, the higher the moral behaviour therein, leading to the building of thousands of small houses, with front and back gardens.
Church influence is also why we see some housing estates in Dublin in cruciform shape from the air. These estates had large churches at their centre, usually beside the local school.
The central church was the support system for the surrounding mass housing.
Think of Christ the King church in Cabra, beside the school and surrounded by 641 estate houses.
At a time when Irish architects were inspired by international sources, many of these churches exhibited conservative 19th-century design tendencies. Between 1940 and 1965, Archbishop McQuaid approved and built 34 churches and formed 26 new parishes, many of which were built and occupied by rural migrants. This is often reflected in road names such as Kildare Park, Cashel Avenue and Leix Road - the rural migrants themselves brought a conservative influence.
Even if you were unaware of the church’s influence on the architecture, its control was evident in the names of many estates, such as Fatima Mansions and St Teresa’s Gardens, and also in roads, such as St Jarlath, St Eithne’s and St Attracta.
Dublin’s streets were “impregnated with faith”, according to a New Zealand bishop who visited the city in 1950. The Marian year of 1954 saw a proliferation of shrine-building and grottoes being erected in and around housing estates.
Whatever the design, the housing itself was needed and delivered. I can draw a direct line, however, between the influence of the church then and many of our housing issues now: a socio-economic system reliant on homeownership; the underdevelopment of social housing; the proliferation of individual houses instead of more useful flats; and the anti-urban bias from politicians.
When the British moved out, the church moved in. Its tentacles permeate modern urban living, even in housing.
Interestingly too, the proposal for the National Children's Hospital went to cabinet for approval, St Vincent's didn't. It seems the Vincent's Board voted unanimously for the build to go ahead and went to Harris who then put it in train, bypassing Cabinet. How did that happen?Yeah I got that - and he gave a good summary of how we got here and the problem with the setup as it stands - but I still don't understand the why?
Why this particular way? If it's the only plan on the table then why or how is that?
Perhaps I'm wrong and board = order.
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