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It was with a great sadness that we learned of the death, yesterday Thursday 11th June 2026, of Mr Paddy (Paudie) Stapleton, late of Clondalkin, Co. Dublin and formerly of Borrisoleigh, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Pre-deceased by his parents Michael and Elizabeth; Mr Stapleton passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family, while in the care of staff at the Beacon Hospital, Sandyford, Dublin.
His passing is most deeply regretted, sadly missed and lovingly remembered by his sorrowing and heartbroken family; loving wife Helen, son Páidí, brothers Matt, Michael, TF and John, sisters Maura, Phina (Callanan), Margaret (Barkman) and Monica, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, wonderful neighbours and many great friends.
Requiescat in Pace.
Funeral Arrangements.
The earthly remains of Mr Stapleton will repose at his place of ordinary residence this afternoon, Friday June 12th, from 4:00pm until 7:00pm same evening.
His remains will be received into the Church of the Immaculate Conception, New Road, Clondalkin Village, Dublin 22, (Eircode D22 VW58), on Saturday morning June 13th, to further repose for Requiem Mass at 12:00 noon, followed by interment in Newlands Cross Cemetery, Ballymount Rd., Ballymount, Dublin, (Eircode D24 KICY).
For those persons who would wish to attend Requiem Mass for Mr Stapleton, but for reasons cannot, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.
The extended Stapleton family wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Ms Cindy Carroll has been announced as the first Chief Appeals Officer to the Tribunal for Asylum and Returns Appeals (TARA). TARA will manage International Protection appeals under the International Protection Act 2026 from June 12th 2026 onwards. The appointment will take effect from that date and will be for a 5-year period.
Ms Carroll has been recommended by ”publicjobs‘, following an open competition as required under legislation.
There will be a period during which both TARA and the current appeals body, the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT), will operate simultaneously under separate legislative frameworks. As appeals under the 2015 International Protection legislation are progressed, IPAT will be wound down over time. All appeals made from June 12th under the International Protection Act 2026 will be dealt with by TARA.
Ms Carroll is a graduate of Law from University College Cork who was called to the Bar of Ireland in 1995.
She practised as a barrister in Cork, and lectured in Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork.
This new role will be vital to the success of the new International Protection Appeals body.
In 2001, Ms Carroll was appointed as Advisory Counsel Grade III in the Office of the Attorney General and worked there advising primarily on asylum and immigration law. She returned to the Bar in Dublin in early 2004 and was briefed as counsel on the State Asylum and Immigration Panel from 2004 until March 2018.
In March 2018, she was appointed as Deputy Chairperson in the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, where she was head of Training and a decision maker on various types of appeals.
As part of the preparations for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, Ms Carroll was appointed as an acting Principal Officer in the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration in July 2025 following an internal competition. This role has involved leading on the establishment of the new appeals body.
In addition to her legal qualifications, Ms Carroll also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Management and an MA in Leadership and Strategy.
Her appointment marks an important step in the establishment of TARA and the ongoing reform of Ireland’s international protection appeals system.
It was with a great sadness that we learned of the death, on Monday 8th June 2026, of Mrs Mary Dunne (née Kennedy), Inchorourke, Gortnahoe, Thurles, Co. Tipperary and formerly of Lower Graigue, Killenaule, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
In her 95th year, and pre-deceased by her husband Séan, sisters Ellie and Bridie and brother Jackie; Mrs Dunne passed away peacefully, surrounded by her loving family, while in the care of staff at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny City, Co. Kilkenny.
Her passing is most deeply regretted, sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her sorrowing family; loving brother Dan, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, extended relatives, excellent neighbours and close friends.
Requiescat in Pace.
Funeral Arrangements.
The earthly remains of Mrs Dunne will repose at Doyle’s Funeral Home, Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny, (Eircode E41 XO38), on Sunday afternoon next, June 14th, from 5:00pm until 7:00pm, before being received into the Church of the Sacred Heart, Gortnahoe, Thurles at 7:30pm same evening.
Requiem Mass for Mrs Dunne will be offered on Monday morning at 11:30am, followed by interment, immediately afterwards, in Fennor Cemetery, Castle Court, Co. Tipperary.
For those persons who would wish to attend Requiem Mass for Mrs Dunne, but for reasons cannot, same can be viewed streamed live online, HERE.
The extended families Dunne and Kennedy families wish to express their appreciation for your understanding at this difficult time, and have made arrangements for those persons wishing to send messages of condolence, to use the link shown HERE.
Note Please: Family flowers only. Donations in lieu, if desired, to Arthritis Ireland in memory of Mrs Mary Dunne (née Kennedy).
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis.
The recent dispute involving the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin has raised important questions about public healthcare, private maternity care and the obligations of consultants working under public-only contracts.
At the centre of the controversy is the Public-Only Consultant Contract. This contract was introduced as part of efforts to reduce private care within Irish public hospitals and strengthen the public health system. Consultants who sign it receive public salaries on the understanding that they will not carry out private practice in public hospital settings, except where specific rules allow it.
The issue arose because some consultants at Dublin’s Rotunda hospital, who were on public-only contracts, were still treating private maternity patients on the hospital campus. This led to a clash between the hospital, the HSE and the Minister for Health, Ms Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
The Rotunda initially defended its position, saying it believed women should have choice in maternity care and continuity with a consultant during pregnancy and birth. However, the HSE and the Minister said the arrangement was not in line with the terms of the public-only contract or the hospital’s agreement with the State.
The pressure on the hospital increased when the HSE warned that continued non-compliance could lead to consequences under its service arrangement, including the possible withholding of funding. The Rotunda has now agreed that consultants on public-only contracts will no longer treat private patients in the hospital.
A further question now concerns women who paid for private or semi-private care from consultants who were, at the same time, employed under public-only contracts. The Minister suggested that women who paid for such care in 2026 may be entitled to refunds. The Rotunda, however, has said that whether refunds are owed is an issue between the consultant and the private patient.
That distinction matters. The hospital appears to be saying that the private fee arrangement was not necessarily with the hospital itself, but with individual consultants. However, the wider public concern remains; if a consultant was being paid by the State to provide public-only care, should patients also have been charged privately for treatment in the same public hospital setting?
This row is not just about one hospital. It goes to the heart of a wider debate in Irish healthcare; how to balance patient choice, continuity of care, consultant contracts and equality of access. Many women value private maternity care because it can offer reassurance and continuity. But public hospitals are heavily funded by taxpayers, and the State’s policy is to ensure that public resources are not used in ways that give paying patients unfair priority.
The Rotunda is one of Ireland’s busiest and best-known maternity hospitals. The dispute has therefore become a test case for how strictly the public-only consultant contract will be enforced across the health service.
For affected patients, the immediate concern is clarity; who was paid, what service was promised, and whether any refund is due.
For the public, the bigger issue is whether Ireland is serious about separating public and private care in public hospitals, or whether exceptions will continue to blur the line.
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.
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