Enda Kenny: "I didn't realise it was a protest; I thought the paralympic team was home"

Enda Kenny has the common touch.

Wallace and Daly - we're all wondering

Well we are, aren't we?

By the look in your eye I can tell you're gonna cry.
Is it over me?
If it is, save your tears
for I'm not worth it, you see.
For I'm the type of boy who is always on the take,
whatever promises I break,
I'm telling you promises I break.

You had socialism, did you escape from the prison
over me?
If it's so I'd like for you to know
that I'm not worth it, you see.
For I'm the type of boy who is always on the take, mm,
whatever promises I make,
mm, promises I break.

Oh, you keep telling me, you keep telling me I'm your man.
What do I have to do to make you understand?
For I'm the type of guy who gives girl the eye,
everybody knows.
But I love them and I leave them,
break their hearts and deceive them everywhere I go.

Don't you know that I'm the type of man who never pays his tax,
ignores the Revenue Commissioners' fax.
wherever I lay my hat, oh oh, that's not really my home, mm yeh,
that's not really my home
and I like it that way.

Pat Rabbitte attempts to force Catholic Church out of public debate

Pat Rabbitte, T.D., Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, made an extraordinary intervention in the Irish debate on abortion, by suggesting that the Catholic Church should not engage in lobbying politicians about abortion.  So while organisations like the Irish Family Planning Association, the National Women's Council, Amnesty International, Trades Unions, would be free to lobby their elected representatives, Catholics alone should be silenced.

I emailed the following to Deputy Rabbitte:


Dear Minister Rabbitte,

I was very surprised by the remarks you made in respect of abortion and the suggestion that Catholics should be uniquely prevented from lobbying their elected representatives.

Or perhaps I misunderstood you.  Are you suggesting that in future no one should lobby elected representatives at all?  The Irish Farmers Association, the GAA, IBEC, your friends in the trades union movement, the multitude of state funded bodies representing women, the disabled etc.  Are you suggesting they too should give up lobbying - or is it just Catholics?

I then sent versions of this email to Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore, Michael Martin, Gerry Adams, Lucinda Creighton and James Bannon - feel free to use it and pass on to other politicians:

Dear Deputy,

I was very surprised by the recent comments by Deputy Pat Rabbitte that Catholics should, uniquely, be excluded from lobbying their elected public representatives in respect of abortion.

Do you share this view?

Is it Fine Gael policy that Catholics alone should refrain from lobbying their elected representatives - or does it apply to other organisations such as the Irish Farmers Association or the Trades Union movement?

Is it government policy?

We need to follow the old divide and conquer approach by isolating those politicians who are most pro-abortion and anti-Catholic.

Kenny and abortion

Abortion will ultimately be the defining moment for Herr Kenny. We'll find out three things:
Does Kenny have any remaining residual faith or has he lost it all?
Can he lead his own party and take on the Minister for Health, James Reilly, who is clearly pro-abortion?
Has he spine, conviction and nerve to take on the Labour Party or will he put remaining in power above all else?
And an extra one- does he have the humility to talk to Michael Martin about abortion?
I'm afraid we know the answers to all those questions.

Pride and arrogance at the Eucharistic Congress

Kenny and Gilmore unveil plans for the future Embassy of Ireland to the Holy See

Careful now

Q. What do you get if you cross Enda Kenny with Amanda Knox?

A. I don't know, but whatever the hell it is, don't turn your back on it?

Notre Dame betrays itself once more

What is it with this Catholic university that it cannot resist giving invitations to anti-catholic politicians?  Of course invite Obama was the big one, the great betrayal, the most pro-abortion president in US history.  And now they've invited Herr Kenny, Ireland's own.  Enemy of the Pope, enemy of the Church, supporter of gay marriage and, in due course, no doubt abortion as well.

It's wonderful how someone who believes passionately in the separation of Church and State manages to infiltrate so many Church institutions, including Tuam Cathedral where he had the gall to present John Paul II awards to young people.  You can read his speech here - the Church is the People of God, a sort of ecclesiastical republic.

In another nice twist of interconnectedness we learn that Herr Kenny will present Irish citizenship to Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame.  And what do we know of this guy?

In the early ‘60s John D. Rockefeller III approached Fr. Theodore Hesburgh who was then president of Notre Dame and asked about the possibility of Notre Dame hosting a Population Council meeting at the university. In 1965 Fr. Hesburgh invited Rockefeller-funded Planned Parenthood to hold a number of so called “secret conferences” at Notre Dame through the intervention of Fr. John O’Brien head of the theology department.  Fr. Hesburgh sold out Catholic higher education and, specifically, Our Lady’s university for a share of Rockefeller’s millions and the accompanying worldly respect. And there was plenty of it. For starters, amazingly, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh actually served on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation as well as held other important positions over the course of 20 years within the organization, the same organization that is a leading proponent of the Culture of Death.

It was this relationship between Hesburgh and the population control Rockefeller Foundation that  perhaps more than any other single alliance in recent Church history which began the meltdown of the past nearly 50 years. And with these secret conferences on population control going on during the summers of the early 1960’s at Notre Dame it soon became clear that a more definitive break with the Catholic Church and her teaching would have to be initiated. In 1967 the year before the Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae which restated Catholic teaching condemning contraception was released  Notre Dame administrators under the direction of Fr. Theodore Hesburgh released what was known as the Land O’Lakes Statement in which they distanced themselves from Catholic teaching. The statement was named after the retreat center of the Holy Cross Fathers the order that founded Notre Dame.

The retreat center is a luxurious hideaway in Land O’ Lakes Wisconsin. While at this quiet summer conference in July of 1967 Fr. Hesburgh and others prepared for the overthrow of the Catholic Faith at Notre Dame. But Hesburgh’s initiative would not stop at the confines of his South Bend, Indiana campus. It spread like a blazing inferno to virtually every other Catholic college looking to unshackle itself from Rome.

This is the man to be honoured with Irish citizenship - Kenny's type of Catholic.

Response from Government Buildings

Well I have been unfair to the Department of An Taoiseach.  You will recall my emailing them about Herr Kenny's visiting Rome without calling on the Holy Father.  I received a response from the Private Secretary:

Dear Mr Doyle,

I refer to your mail regarding the Taoiseachs recent meeting in Rome with
the Italian Prime Minister on Friday 24 February.

The Taoiseach was on a brief working visit to Rome to meet with PM Monti
specifically on EU business including preparations for the European Council
meeting of last week.  There was no other dimension to the visit.

The Taoiseach also met with Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Necas of the
Czech Republic and Prime Minister Dombrovkis of Latvia in Berlin the
previous evening also in relation to EU business.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Reddy
Private Secretary to the Taoiseach

Which is all very well, but doesn't address why he didn't seek to arrange an audience with the Pope.  Perhaps he was too tired after meeting all those other important people like the Prime Minister of Latvia.

First faller in the Treaty Hurdles

So Éamon Ó Cuiv is the first casualty in the referendum campaign for the Fiscal Union Compact Treaty (FUCT).

I was watching Vincent Browne last night and thinking “why on earth are Fianna Fail sticking their neck out on this treaty?” There is nothing in this for them politically. If it gets through Kenny gets the benefit. If it falls FF are losers again. And yet there was the FF spokesman defending it while FG failed to provide a spokesman. And now they’ve split the party.

Eamon O Cuiv represented the last hope for many old time Fianna Failers – socially conservative, nervous about Brussels encroachments. Michael Martin was foolish to come out so strongly in support of this treaty.  He should have waited until the party had time to take a view;  he should have looked at the other related issues around write-offs.  And he should have thought about the politics of things instead of runnning headlong into supporting the Government.

Herr Kenny in Rome

Just back from visiting my brother in Australia.  I have to say it was bloody brilliant.  I read no newspapers and did my best to forget about Ireland and our awful government.

So I've been catching up with the latest embarrassments.  I see Herr Kenny has been on his first visit to Rome.  And for the first time - I'm pretty sure ever - a Taoiseach on his first visit to Rome failed to seek an audience with the Holy Father.

Reminiscent of another world leader visiting Rome who failed to get an audience with the Pope.

I sent the following email to the Department of An Taoiseach:

Can I ask, concerning the Taoiseach's visit to Rome:

Why the Taoiseach isn't meeting the Pope?

Was any attempt made to arrange such an audience?

Was any contact made with officials at the Vatican to request an audience?

Was the matter considered at all by the Taoiseach and his officials?

Is this one more indicator of the decline in relations between Ireland and the Holy See?

I think it's unheard of for a Taoiseach on his first visit to Rome not to have an audience with the Pope.

Brendan Doyle,
Clonakilty.

And guess what?  No answer, no acknowledgment.  Probably too busy writing Thank You letters to the Chinese.