Compiled by ÉANNA Ó CAOLLAÍ
COULD SOMEONE please explain to this middle-aged Irish Catholic man why I should believe anything they ever taught me, and why I shouldn’t say goodbye and good riddance to the Irish Catholic Church? I cant be the only one asking these questions. Ive thought about joining the Church of Ireland. I never thought it would come to this.
Tony K
An historic speech. Will we look back on yesterday as the day that Eire truly achieved independence?
Scotsman99
Tremendous, awesome, historic, momentous. The first statement from a politician worth reading and rereading, and remembering. Righteous indignation, right from the top and right from his core. Keep the fire burning,
Taoiseach, because there is much to be thrown upon the bonfire, and you will never be forgotten if you can clear the mess you have inherited. Awesome, absolutely legend. Today, Thursday, July 21st, 2011, will require straight talk in Brussels in the European Council. It is now or never.
Leo Regan
Well said Enda, a great way to deflect attention from your general impotence and inability to keep your own promises, in the face of this massive financial crisis. While the social workers (whom you can barely afford to pay) are buried in paper work as a result of endless reports to big brother, who is going to mind the likes of the Dublin 6-year-old I heard of the other day, who turned up at school on Monday morning having eaten nothing all weekend?
Joe Aston
Probably the most important speech made in the Dáil for decades, it marks the beginning of the break with the past. Well done Enda, leadership at last . . . actions must follow! Soon we may be able to say we are proud to be Irish! Maybe now we can actually put the word Republic into our Constitution, maybe just maybe we will be a true republic where all are cherished equally.
RDublinC
An important and overdue line in the sand, stating (at last) the basic tenets of republican political philosophy. Dont stop now. Open a serious review of the activities of every diocese in the Republic.
Let the State cower no more before the massed ranks of the clergy. Let the guilty tremble and account for their actions – not before the self-serving, in-house obfuscators and “mentally reserved” but before a jury of 12 citizens.
Absolution, salvation and all the rest have no place here. Justice is proper to the republic.
Malleus Malleficarum
Our precious children are not playthings for deviant clergy. Our laws will no longer be circumvented by criminal clerical conspirators. Our nation will no longer be dissed by those who lived so very well off our very generous contributions since the Norman Conquest. A thousand years of giving.This from a church that tells us that the mega infrastructure of schools, hospitals, hospices, convents, monasteries, and seminaries and the huge tracts of land they steward are “private” property, holdings that in moral truth if not land law are held in trust for the benefit of the Irish people who paid for them. A genuine national leader for the Irish people after all these years. Thank you, Taoiseach for giving us back our self-respect. If we get this one right by pursuing a transparent “tell it like it is” approach, the auguries are very good indeed for our future prospects.
Jay
Are you sincere Enda? Its very simple. Break off diplomatic relations with the Vatican “state”, then nationalise all hospitals and schools currently under the aegis of any faith group, without compensation
Glenda Lough
The firmness with which Mr Kenny has expressed his views, and the position of the Government is refreshing and to be applauded. The full effect of the Irish legal system will, I trust, be brought to bear on the accused, and their prosecution will lead to appropriate sentences in proportion to the crimes for which they will be tried in open court and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
That even the hint of a cover-up will be tolerated in any circumstance in the future would be intolerable and an insult to the abused, a perversion of Irish law, and an abject submission to any attempts by the Vatican to return to the era when the church dictated the course of Irish politics.
Bravo, Mr Kenny, and thank you.
JB Barrett
The Reaction On Twitter . . .
@cairotango
“I’m still in shock. If he actually means what he says then Enda Kenny has more backbone than any Taoiseach before him.”
@evaduffy
“Ireland cuts the Vatican umbilical cord”
@gombeenpolitics
“Wow! A Taoiseach with the balls to stand up to the Catholic Church”
@barryhennesssy
“Taoiseach Enda Kenny really socked it to the Catholic Church”
@mkellyirishcath
“Enda Kenny’s speech to the Dáil on Cloyne, while making some good points, is filled with bizarre rhetoric”
@lileeny
“Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Wendi Deng”
@spatouttweets
“Its what our leaders should have been saying for years”
Compiled by CHARLIE TAYLOR