Apart from achieving independence, joining the European Union, and almost unlimited access to education, nothing has changed this society as dramatically as the Catholic Church’s spectacular loss of power.

The three-monkeys principle — see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil — was, in the areas of physical or sexual abuse, close enough to convention for many generations. Its application, however, was uneven.

Pope Francis came and he went. In terms of the past sins visited on the Irish population by the Catholic Church, not a lot of difference was made.

A former top Vatican official has accused Pope Francis of having known of allegations of sex abuse by a prominent US cardinal for five years before accepting his resignation last month and he called on the pontiff to resign.

O’Byrne Cup

Crumbling loyalties could lead to breakthroughs in many of the missing women cases, according to a senior garda who investigated them.

A Sinn Féin local election candidate who was suspended from the party for allegedly threatening to send an ex-prisoner after his wife has won a High Court order lifting the suspension.

DEFENDING Leinster and All-Ireland U21 football champions Dublin forfeited their titles at Pairc Tailteann, Navan last night as Meath made a late recovery.

Up to 5,000 people are expected to honour the victims of the Great Famine at next week’s formal State ceremony, it emerged today.

Counsellors were working with teenagers at a school in Co Mayo tonight after a 15-year-old boy was found dead a week after a fellow pupil took his own life.

Children are being counselled today after one of their classmates was found dead in their school grounds.

GARDA Commissioner Noel Conroy has placed unsolved crimes as a major priority in his last year in charge of the force.

Food and agribusiness giant IAWS today announced the retirement of Patrick McCarrick from the company's board of directors.

Friends of comedian Bob Hope have celebrated his life and career at a Mass in Washington DC, a week after his death at the age of 100.

The Catholic church in the US is to adopt a ‘‘one-strike-you’re-out’’ policy for paedophile priests involved in future sex abuse case, it was decided in the Vatican today.

Leaders from America’s scandal-scarred Roman Catholic Church will hear out Pope John Paul II and present their own proposals today during an unprecedented discussion on public anger over priestly sexual abuse.

American cardinals arrived in Rome today for meetings with the Pope, saying they will take whatever steps are needed to assure Catholics that a paedophile priests scandal is under control.