Tony Blair has voiced “more sorrow, regret, and apology than you may ever know or can believe” for his role in the invasion of Iraq.

This week, I visited a grave at Glasnevin Cemetery, which is maintained by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the order that ran Magdalene Laundries at High Park and Gloucester/Sean McDermott St. For 11 years I have made this journey, but this occasion was different, because I witnessed the grave being opened by the grounds staff. This shock was followed by the realisation another former Magdalene woman had died while in the care of the nuns.

The remarks by Gerry Adams following the Smithwick Report would make all rightthinking people sick to the core.

Up to 20 retired British soldiers face being arrested and questioned by police for murder, attempted murder or criminal injury over the Bloody Sunday shootings more than 40 years ago, it was reported today.

The inquests into the deaths of 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster will have a jury, the coroner ruled today.

Victims groups have accused the McAleese committee of not being “transparent” by springing interviews on survivors without prior knowledge and weakening the inquiry by not issuing a public call for victims to come forward.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is expected to win favour with Labour party grassroots by cutting the €95 million State subsidy for private schools.

The Department of Education will not be able to handle a glut of extra property transfers from religious orders within its current resources.

The IMF has told the Government to cut the old age pension, the minimum wage, social welfare payments, and child benefit as part of a range of measures to reduce the deficit.

More than €10m in compensation has been paid out to victims of paedophile priests in the Dublin area, it was revealed today.

Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has welcomed the findings of a party disciplinary committee which exonerated her after criticism in the Mahon Tribunal report of an "inappropriate" £500 donation she received from lobbyist Frank Dunlop.

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

The Government has announced that a memorial is to be designed for the victims of institutional abuse.

A cleric asked to examine abuse allegations against a fellow priest suggested a teenage victim was to blame, a previously unpublished section of the Cloyne Report has revealed.

The Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Cloyne has expressed his profound sorrow on the publication of the final chapter of the Cloyne Report.

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.

Six separate reports on child protection measures in Catholic dioceses in Ireland will be published today.

Six separate reports on child protection measures in Catholic dioceses in Ireland will be published tomorrow.

TOWN councils offer the best and most efficient form of local government in Ireland and should be given enhanced roles in any reform of the sector, a new report has claimed.

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Mary Davis has denied her campaign is bankrolled by businessman Denis O’Brien but has not ruled out the possibility that he is making a donation.

EXPRESSING surprise and regret at some of the “excessive reactions” to the Cloyne Report the Vatican recalled its ambassador to Ireland to discuss the preparation of its response.

WHILE there was no allegation of child sexual abuse made against Fr Naal, or evidence to support such an allegation, the commission said the failure to carry out a proper inquiry was wrong from a child protection point of view.

Fairness and equity is the pathway to closure for abuse survivors and orders involved, writes Education Minister Ruairi Quinn

THE 46 most valuable education assets held by the religious orders were not offered to the state under a renegotiated redress deal in 2010.

RELIGIOUS orders have been told to either pay another €200 million towards the cost of compensating the victims of child abuse or sign over schools to public ownership.

A LETTER sent to Irish bishops in 1997 shows that the Vatican secretly blocked attempts to report paedophile priests to gardaí.

DISAGREEMENTS have emerged between campaigners who are hoping to re-designate one of the country’s largest institutes of technology as a university.

NEARLY 18 months after being promised €2 million to provide survivor therapy following the publication of the Ryan Report, counselling services still haven’t received a penny of the ring-fenced funding.

Ireland had the highest birth rate in Europe in 2008 according to the ESRI.

SEEING that the Catholic Church teaches that “anger” is one of the seven deadly sins, what is one to make of the Vatican reacting with “anger” at the Murphy Report probing into their information on clerical abuse of minors.

The Government must reaffirm commitments to protect children on the first anniversary of the damning Murphy Report into clerical child sex abuse.

A TOP child law expert has claimed the Government is ignoring the recommendations from the Roscommon incest case report in a new bill “designed to silence ‘troublesome’ voices” of children in legal proceedings.

A REPORT has identified significant failings in how a huge backlog of X-rays developed at one of the country’s biggest hospitals and in how it dealt with thousands of GP referral letters.

BARNARDOS, the children’s charity, has had to close some of its waiting lists to new referrals until after Christmas because of pressure on services.

“AS a childcare manager ... I was tasked with receiving all notifications of suspected child abuse and ensuring appropriate action.

If Government promises were enough to resolve our problems, we would probably have no problems, because the current Government has never been short on promises.

SOCIAL care workers are “walking on eggshells” and feel they cannot respond in a normal and natural way to children’s needs due to the increasingly strict guidelines they must adhere to.

Irish bishops have been hauled before Vatican chiefs in the wake of devastating child abuse scandals, it was revealed today.

THE date after which the Catholic Church’s culture of covering up clerical abuse of children ended must be made known, a Catholic newspaper has written.

The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty has offered his resignation to the Pope today.

New guidelines today have been launched for people working with children in care that address criticisms in the Ryan Report.

“I MET the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops on Monday 7th December. I asked him to bring my resignation as Bishop of Limerick to Pope Benedict.

CHILDREN’S rights groups have welcomed the funds announced for the implementation of the Ryan Report and the Children’s Rights Referendum.

Almost a third of children’s homes inspected by the country’s health service watchdog are not properly vetting staff, it emerged tonight.