THE introduction of free second-level education was one of the most transformative, if not the most transformative, initiatives ever introduced by an Irish politician. Two simple statistics support that view, though there are many other factors. While this island was still part of the United Kingdom just 6% of the population went beyond national school.

As of 1940, primary school was the sole source of education for 90% of the population. Fifty years ago, Donogh O’Malley outlined an initiative that would finally change all that, writes Ryle Dwyer 

WHEN Baroness Nuala O’Loan was Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman between 1999 and 2007 she was a positive, unflinching agent for change.

Ronan Fanning describes Éamon de Valera’s behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the Treaty as petulant, inflammatory, ill judged, and profoundly undemocratic. Ryle Dwyer says this is a fair and balanced assessment.

The same-sex marriage debate should revolve around real names and faces instead of labels and categories, a Church of Ireland bishop and advocate of gay marriage has said.

That America’s supreme court yesterday declined to decide on whether states can ban gay marriage, will allow gay men and women to marry in five states where same-sex weddings had been forbidden.

An influential group representing Ireland’s Catholic priests has warned that ordained clerics are facing the grim prospect of having to celebrate collective funeral Masses in the near future.

The Bishop of Cork and Ross has joined the Archbishop of Dublin in calling for an independent public inquiry into the deaths of children at religious-run mother-and-baby homes.

GETTING the boot into the Catholic Church is always a good start for any Labour minister. Complaining that the Catholic hierarchy had not provided him with examples of how inclusiveness can work in Catholic schools two years after he had asked them to worked well for Ruairi Quinn before the teachers’ conferences got down to what mattered: restoring pay rates.

Catholics for Choice believes people can make their own judgements about sex and reproduction, says Jonathan deBurca Butler

The Vatican “systematically” adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades, a UN human rights committee said today.

THEY are dismissed as con artists or depicted as cinematic heroes, as authentic as the ghoulish Halloween figures they battle.

An outspoken priest has hit out at intolerant and extreme right-wingers in the Church and questioned why priests like Fr Tony Flannery were being “persecuted with a zeal that is as pathological as the paranoia that feeds it”.

The Catholic Church should publicly state whether it has a policy of refusing communion to TDs who voted for X Case legislation, a Government minister has insisted.

A fanatical approach is now being taken towards legislation to clear up the problems that happened in the Savita Hallapanavar case.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has dismissed claims from a senior Vatican official that politicians should resign rather than support Ireland’s abortion laws.

Cardinal Seán Brady left no doubt on Saturday at Knock that the Catholic hierarchy is determined to influence politicians and the electorate to defeat the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill.

The Catholic hierarchy will not mount a legal challenge to the Government’s planned legislation on abortion.

The apology issued on behalf of all of us by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil last evening, to women who were held in one of the 10 Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996, was inevitable and overdue.

According to an ancient Irish saint and Paddy Power, Bono and Father Dougal McGuire from 'Father Ted' have outside chances of presiding over the end of the world.

The Catholic hierarchy hid for far too long behind the shield of ignorance when confronted by accusations of child abuse.

Pope Benedict’s official representative in Ireland has described 2013 as “an incredibly important” year “for the sanctity of human life” and urged people of conscience from all religions and none “to work vigorously and courageously to protect human life from conception to natural death”.

A survivor of industrial school abuse, who took to the pulpit to call for a national day of atonement, has urged priests to give survivors an opportunity to speak to their fellow parishioners.

An American lawyer who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth has said that the Vatican has “blood on its hands” for its failure to inform Irish Church authorities that it had censured Smyth for abuse in the United States years before the 1975 secret inquiry.

Today FM radio presenter Ray D'Arcy has refused to apologise for controversial comments criticising the Catholic Church.

Fresh controversy linked to the Government’s decision to close its Vatican embassy has erupted, as a senior US cleric has turned down an invitation to a St Patrick’s Day event at which Taoiseach Enda Kenny will speak.

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin has led tributes to a groundbreaking journalist who lifted the lid on clerical and institutional abuse in Ireland.

Serious failures in the handling of child sex abuse allegations against a priest in the Diocese of Cloyne are expected to be highlighted in an official report today.

Serious failures in the handling of child sex abuse allegations against a priest in the Diocese of Cloyne are expected to be published tomorrow.

IF our Constitution would allow it, and if the lady could be persuaded, it is certain President Mary McAleese would begin a third term this winter.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has accused the Holy See of unwarranted interference in a government-ordered inquiry into clerical child abuse over three separate years.

GROUPS supporting victims of child clerical sex abuse yesterday said the Vatican was indulging in “pure spin” in its response to the fallout from the Cloyne report.

MASS-GOERS in the Taoiseach’s home constituency of Castlebar had plenty of praise for him following his scathing attack on the Vatican this week.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny today launched an unprecedented attack on the Vatican, accusing Catholic hierarchy of putting the preservation of the church's reputation ahead of child rape victims.

The Pope’s ambassador to Ireland has been ordered to get answers from the Vatican on damning revelations that it allowed priests to ignore the law.

The former Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, has issued a statement in which he sincerely apologises to all those who were abused by priests in the diocese.

A retired Catholic bishop has been singled out for failing to follow Church rules on reporting clerical sex abuse in an Irish diocese as recently as three years ago.

THE decision that will allow the Educate Together group to open its first two secondary schools in the next two years is very welcome.

THE Catholic Church’s child protection tsar, Ian Elliott, was on the verge of resigning in the past year after a review of child protection standards in the country’s 26 dioceses was halted because the Church refused to co-operate.

IT WAS after 10pm on April 11, 1951 when Taoiseach John A Costello made the shock announcement that Health Minister Noel Browne had resigned and President Seán T O’Kelly had accepted the resignation on the recommendation of the Taoiseach.

CATHOLIC Church representatives have said reports that up to 50% of Catholic schools will be transferred to other patrons under a new Government initiative are “way over the top”.

RUAIRÍ QUINN’S plan to transfer some 50% of Catholic primary schools to a different model of patronage will prove as fraught with pitfalls as it may be historic. The minister will have his work cut out if he wants to even partially realise his vision during the lifetime of this Dáil.