A Government That Protects Childhood But Discards Human Life Has Lost Its Moral Authority.
Ireland’s Government now speaks of protecting children from social media. An Taoiseach Mr Micheál Martin has called social media “the public health issue of our time,” and ministers are currently considering a ban for those aged under-16 years.
But before the State appoints itself guardian of the child, it should answer a harder question; “What value does this Irish State place on life in the first place?” This same Irish political system, that now wants to shield teenagers from algorithms, has just voted to advance the removal of the three-day waiting period before abortion. Under current Irish law, abortion is available up to 12 weeks, with a mandatory three-day wait between the first consultation and access to abortion medication. Our Dáil has now voted 86 to 70 to progress same legislation that would remove that short waiting period.
That is not a minor administrative change. It is a strong moral statement. A society that cannot tolerate even three days of reflection before ending unborn life should be very slow to lecture parents about their responsibility. A government that treats a three-day waiting period as an obstacle, while presenting social media regulation as child protection, is not showing any moral consistency. Rather it is showing moral confusion. Shame on us if we have reached the point where the unborn child is spoken of mainly as a problem to be processed instantly, while the State congratulates itself for protecting older children from their mobile phones.
This is especially hard to justify in a country where contraception is widely available and increasingly funded by the public. The HSE’s free contraception scheme covers GP consultations, prescriptions, long-acting reversible contraception such as implants and coils, the contraceptive patch and ring, oral contraceptive pills, injections, emergency contraceptionfor eligible age groups and abortion made available free through the HSE for eligible residents.
So we must ask plainly; “How did a society with so many ways to prevent conception become so casual about ending life after conception?“ This is not about denying the complexity of crisis pregnancies. It is not about lacking compassion for women in fear, in poverty, in abandonment, illness or distress. A truly pro-life society must be pro-mother, pro-family, pro-housing, pro-care, pro-disabilitysupport, pro-adoptionreform and pro-real help. But compassion cannot mean pretending there is no second life involved. Nor should compassion become a political costume worn only when same is convenient.
When it comes to social media, government says children must be protected because platforms are powerful, addictive and harmful. Fair enough. But parents cannot fight global technology companies alone. Here the Irish State has a legitimate role in regulating platforms that profit from children’s attention. But when it comes to unborn life, many of the same political voices from all political parties insist that the Irish State should step back, speed up access, remove pauses, and call such action “progress“.
The old model, where “parents decided what children watch, read, and do”, made more sense when the risks were local, visible, and interruptible; television in the sitting room, a phone line, a shop, a playground, a magazine. Social media is different because parents are not just dealing with content; they are dealing with algorithmic feeds, infinite scroll, recommendation systems, private messaging, behavioural targeting, peer pressure, age misrepresentation, and devices carried everywhere.
Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Framework already reflects that shift: it says digital services must be made accountable for protecting people, especially children, from online harm. That does NOT mean Ireland is a nation of failed parents. The call for regulation is partly an admission that even good parents are being put in an unfair contest against platforms with far more data, design expertise, money, and behavioural leverage. Calling parents “failed” risks letting platforms and policymakers off the hook. To leave parents to fight the consequences individually, then to introduce State-managed verification, surveillance, and bureaucratic controls as being the remedy, is not a healthy social contract.
That contradiction is glaring.The State SHOULD NOT become the parent. Ireland’s Constitution recognises the family as the primary and natural educator of the child, and parental authority should not be casually displaced by government decree. The role of the State should be to defend the conditions in which families can flourish, through safe communities, accountable platforms, decent housing, proper healthcare, and a culture that honours life rather than managing its disposal.
But this coalition government guided by Sinn Féin, a party that supports terrorism, increasingly behaves as though family authority is optional; moral tradition is embarrassing, and life itself is negotiable. That is why the proposed under-16 social media ban should be treated with caution. Not because children do not need protection; indeed they do. Not because platforms should be left alone; they most definitely should not. But because a government that has lost moral seriousness about the beginning of life, cannot simply be trusted to become the moral guardian of childhood.
Ireland is NOT a nation of failed parents. We are a nation whose parents are being undermined from both sides: by technology companies that commercialise childhood, and by political leaders who too often replace moral responsibility with managerial control. The answer is not State parenthood, but it is NOT Silicon Valley parenthood either. The answer is a renewed culture of life and responsibility; parents first, families respected, platforms restrained, mothers supported, children protected, and unborn life recognised as something more than an inconvenience.
A government that wants to protect children online should begin by recovering reverence for children everywhere; including the child not yet born.
The Dáil vote to advance Sinn Féin’s morally reprehensible Bill, abolishing the mandatory three-day waiting period before abortion, is a deeply troubling moment for Ireland.
While this was not yet the final passing of this law, it was nevertheless a decisive and shameful step. The Bill passed Second Stage by 86 votes to 70, with no abstentions recorded. It now moves to further scrutiny, but the message from a majority of TDs is already clear; one of the few remaining safeguards in Ireland’s abortion law is now in their sights.
The three-day wait was not an extreme measure. It was a modest pause. It recognised that abortion is not ordinary healthcare, but the ending of a developing human life. It gave space for reflection, for pressure to ease, and perhaps for a mother to receive support, hope and alternatives. Removing it makes abortion faster, easier and more routine.
This is Sinn Féin’s Bill. Under Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership, a party that speaks constantly about housing, poverty, families and equality has chosen to put its political weight behind stripping away a safeguard for unborn children. That says a great deal about the moral direction of the party. Sinn Féin presents itself as the voice of ordinary Ireland, yet here it has helped lead an attack on the most voiceless human beings in the Irish State.
Will there be a referendum? As things stand, probably not. The 2018 referendum removed constitutional protection for the unborn and handed the Oireachtas power to legislate for abortion. That means TDs can now change abortion law without returning to the people, unless a future constitutional amendment is proposed. This is exactly why voters were previously warned that legal protections could be steadily dismantled once the Eighth Amendment was gone.
The voting record also deserves close attention. Published breakdowns show no abstentions, but several TDs were absent or not recorded as voting. The absent/not-recorded names listed include, note; Tipperary TD Alan Kelly, Thomas Byrne, Niamh Smyth, Peter “Chap” Cleere, James O’Connor, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, James Lawless, Conor D. McGuinness, Denise Mitchell, John Brady, Rose Conway-Walsh, Sorca Clarke, Helen McEntee, Hildegarde Naughton, Patrick O’Donovan, Neale Richmond, Verona Murphy, Charles Ward and Richard O’Donoghue.
In Tipperary, Mr Alan Kelly of Labour, (Tipperary North), was listed as absent. Both Mr Michael Lowry and Mr Ryan O’Meara voted NO; in Tipperary South, Mr Séamus Healy voted YES, while Mr Mattie McGrath and Mr Michael Murphy voted NO.
And where are the Churches? The bishops have made statements defending life, but many ordinary christians feel the public witness has been far too quiet, cautious and muted. At a moment like this, Ireland does not need whispers. It needs moral clarity.
This vote should not be forgotten. Every TD who voted Yes, and every TD who failed to vote should be remembered. Ireland deserves better than this.
There has been little change in water quality indicators in 2025. Overall water quality remains unsatisfactory in many areas.
Excess nutrients from agriculture and wastewater remain the greatest challenge to water quality improvements, with phosphorous and nitrate levels still too high in many of our waters.
Some areas show improvements which is promising, but these are being offset by declines elsewhere. The scale and pace of implementation of actions to protect and restore water quality needs to be increased.
The message could not be clearer, and it should be a wake-up call for every community living beside a river in Ireland, including those of us along the River Suir.
The EPA’s Water Quality in 2025: An Indicators Report shows that there has been little change in water quality indicators in 2025, with overall water quality still unsatisfactory in many areas. Nutrient levels remain too high in a large proportion of water bodies, and slightly more than half; 54% of rivers and lakes are in good or better biological quality. So the question must be asked locally: why is the River Suir still being neglected? For the past 14 years, we have heard promises, plans, meetings, schemes, visits and announcements, but the visible condition of parts of the Suir, particularly around Thurles, remains totally unacceptable.
River Suir, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Pic: G. Willoughby.
On 25 May 2026, Tipp Mid West Radio reported that North Tipperary TD Mr Michael Lowry said he was submitting a funding application for works on the River Suir between Templemore and Ballycamas. That announcement is indeed welcome, but it also raises a very simple question: after so many years of concern about the condition of the Suir, why are we still at the stage of applications, announcements and proposed works?
We are also told that the Government has amended the Minor Works Scheme, that Tipperary County Council has been allocated €150,000 for river conveyance works, and that funding applications of up to €2 million may be made to cover remedial works. Mr Lowry has said he will work with Cllr Micheál Lowry to progress a plan for the River Suir, and Minister Kevin “Boxer” Moran is expected to visit Thurles to view the river’s condition. That is welcome, but it cannot become yet another photo opportunity, followed by another decade of delay.
The EPA is clear that excess nutrients from agriculture, wastewater and run-off remain the greatest challenge to improving water quality. It has also said that while some areas are improving, those gains are being offset by declines elsewhere, and that the scale and pace of action must increase.
LAWPRO is working across the wider River Suir catchment to reduce damaging discharges, while community groups and Rivers Trust initiatives are encouraging local people, landowners and stakeholders to get involved in protecting the Suir and its tributaries. That community involvement is important, but communities cannot do this alone.
The missing ingredient for the River Suir is not more talk, it is delivery.We need clear answers:
► What works will be carried out? ► When will they begin? ► Who is responsible for delivery? ► Has the funding application now been submitted? ► What section of the river will be prioritised first? ► How will pollution and damaging discharges be reduced? ► How will progress be measured and reported publicly?
River Suir, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Pic: G. Willoughby.
The River Suir is one of this region’s greatest natural assets. It should not be treated as an afterthought. Clean water supports biodiversity, public health, recreation, tourism, farming, fishing and local pride.
After 14 years of discussion, the people of Thurles and the wider Suir catchment area deserve more than statements of concern. They deserve action, visible funded and accountable.
If Irish political leaders from Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats want to speak about justice, human rights and moral responsibility, then they should be willing to condemn all terror, including Hamas’s terror against Palestinians, with the same force.
For years, too many people including members of Sinn Féin have labelled the present Hamas as “freedom fighters,” as if brutality becomes noble when it is wrapped in political language. But a new United Nations report makes the reality impossible to ignore: Hamas does not only terrorise Israelis. It terrorises Palestinians too.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry has now documented a pattern of executions, torture, maiming and public punishment inside Gaza. This is not Israeli propaganda. This is not rumour. This is the United Nations describing Palestinians as “victims of all sides,” trapped between mass atrocities, repression and armed groups willing to rule through fear.
According to the report, the Commission identified 249 cases of executions and severe physical violence in Gaza during 2024–2025, resulting in at least 108 deaths and 384 injuries. The report says Hamas-affiliated forces were involved in at least 60 incidents, including public executions and brutal punishments carried out in front of communities.
The details are horrific. Men were reportedly blindfolded and shot in public squares. Others were beaten with metal pipes. Bones were deliberately broken. Victims were kneecapped, maimed, humiliated and punished in ways designed not only to injure the individual, but to send a message to everyone watching: obey, or this could be you.
The UN report describes these acts as amounting to the “war crimes of murder and torture.” That sentence should stop everyone in their tracks. Public executions are not justice. Beatings with metal pipes are not resistance. Breaking the bones of Palestinians in the streets of Gaza is not liberation. It is terror. And it matters that these crimes were carried out publicly. The Commission itself expressed alarm at the “severity and public nature” of the violence. Public punishment is a political tool. It is designed to spread fear, silence dissent, intimidate rivals, and remind ordinary civilians that the armed men are in control.
This is the truth many Irish people have refused to face: Hamas’s cruelty is not reserved for Israelis. It extends to Palestinians living under its rule. Palestinians in Gaza have been used as human shields, denied political freedom, exposed to ruinous wars, and now, according to the UN’s own findings, subjected to executions and torture by Hamas-affiliated forces. None of this reduces the suffering of civilians in Gaza. It explains part of it. Palestinians are not served by pretending Hamas is a heroic movement. They are betrayed by that lie.
The UN has now put more evidence on the record. The question is whether those who excused Hamas for years will finally listen. There is no freedom in being dragged into a square and shot. There is no dignity in being beaten with pipes. There is no liberation in broken bones. Hamas is not a movement of freedom. It is a movement of fear.
A genuine concern for Palestinian lives must include concern for Palestinians abused by Hamas. A genuine defence of human rights must condemn torture whether the victim is Israeli or Palestinian. A genuine commitment to justice must reject the fantasy that armed extremists become moral actors simply because they claim to speak for an oppressed people. Hamas has shown the world what it is through its actions: massacre, hostage-taking, repression, torture and public executions. It has brought misery to both Israelis and Palestinians alike.
That is why the latest Dáil debate on Ireland’s fixtures against Israel should trouble anyone who cares about moral consistency. Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats pushed motions aimed at stopping the Ireland-Israel matches and seeking Israel’s exclusion from international sport, but the Dáil rejected those proposals after Government amendments stated that the fixture is a matter for the Football Association of Ireland, not Government. The amended motions passed by 81 votes to 68.
The FAI is now considering whether the October 4th fixture should go ahead in Dublin or be moved to a neutral venue, with Hungary reported as a possible alternative, subject to UEFA approval. But the wider question remains: why is there such political energy devoted to isolating Israel from sport, while far less attention is paid to the UN’s own findings that Hamas-affiliated forces have executed, tortured and maimed Palestinians in Gaza?
If Irish political leaders want to speak about justice, human rights and moral responsibility, then they should be willing to condemn all terror, including Hamas’s terror against Palestinians, with the same force.
The Dáil vote at least recognised that sporting fixtures are not for Government to dictate, but the debate also exposed how often the crimes of Hamas are treated as secondary, even when the victims are Palestinians themselves.
The EU Migration and Asylum Pact must be judged by one simple test: does it help Ireland and Europe manage migration in a way that is fair, humane, lawful and safe?
Compassion matters. People fleeing war, persecution and real danger should be treated with dignity. Ireland has a proud tradition of helping people in need, and that should not be abandoned. But compassion cannot mean naivety. It cannot mean weak borders, poor screening, endless delays, or communities being told to accept decisions without proper consultation. It also cannot mean ignoring the genuine fear many Irish people now feel when they see violent attacks, pressure on housing, pressure on services, and a growing sense that ordinary people are not being listened to.
Across Ireland and Northern Ireland, people have been shaken by serious crimes and brutal attacks; the murder of teacher Ashling Murphy, the horrific attack on a priest in Downpatrick, and the shocking attempted beheading attack in Belfast. These cases are not all the same, and it would be wrong to use every tragedy to blame migrants as a whole. Most migrants are not criminals, and many come here to work, contribute and live peacefully. But it would also be wrong for politicians to dismiss public concern as racism or extremism every time people ask serious questions about security, vetting, deportation, border control and community safety.
A fair migration system must protect refugees, but it must also protect the host community. That means proper identity checks, faster decisions, stronger removal of people who have no right to stay, and immediate action where anyone; be they Irish or non-Irish, poses a danger to the public.
The EU Migration Pact certainly may bring more structure to the asylum system, but structure alone is not enough. Faster procedures must still be fair. Human rights must be respected. But public safety must also be treated as a human right, because Irish people have the right to feel safe in their towns, churches, schools, streets and homes. The debate should not be reduced to two extremes. On one side, there are people who want to shut the door completely. On the other, there are people who seem unwilling to admit that uncontrolled migration creates real problems. Ireland needs neither open-door idealism nor hatred. Ireland needs balance.
That balance should be clear: We should welcome genuine refugees. We should reject racism and violence against innocent people. We should remove those who abuse the system. We should never ignore crimes that terrify communities. We should demand honesty from government instead of slogans.
The EU Migration Pact will only work if it restores trust. Trust requires fairness for asylum seekers, but also fairness for Irish citizens. Trust requires compassion, but also enforcement. Trust requires humanity, but also common sense. Migration must be managed properly. Borders must mean something. Communities must be consulted. Dangerous people must not be allowed to fall through the cracks.
Ireland can be generous, but generosity must be matched with responsibility. A humane country protects the vulnerable, and that includes both those seeking refuge and the Irish people who expect their government to keep them safe.
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