A driving force behind addiction treatment, Sr Margaret Kiely is grateful for the many opportunities she’s had to live life to the full, writes Rowena Walsh

Tributes have been paid to a Cork nun who was tragically killed in an accident in Birmingham on Friday.

Despite his reservations about the Catholic Church as an institution, RP O’Donnell still has strong faith this Christmas.

Young women stand up and fight — that is the rousing cry of barrister and owner of Lissadell House, Constance Cassidy.

Education Minister Richard Bruton’s officials will meet the Christian Brothers order next week to discuss a disputed land deal to help meet their liability for child abuse redress costs.

An academic who had access to one diocesan archive reports accounts of physical abuse and medical neglect and argues that the files are not accurately reflected in the McAleese Report into the Laundries, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

A religious order that ran two Magdalene Laundries told the Government that its decision not to contribute any money to the redress scheme for survivors was based on the findings of the McAleese Report.

The Government, seeking redress for the Magdalene women, found a religious community unwilling to contribute, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The Government says it will continue to assert “moral pressure” on religious orders to provide more money to cover the costs of redress to survivors of residential abuse, with one survivors’ group claiming Pope Francis should become involved.

LATEST: The Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, has criticised the religious congregations for not applying the moral code they expect of others to themselves.

A six-year legal battle by former nun Nora Wall for damages from the State after her wrongful conviction for the rape of a young girl was certified a miscarriage of justice has settled at the High Court.

Plans to turn former convent buildings into social housing have been thrown a lifeline after the Department of the Environment agreed to fund a feasibility study.

Dignity Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in the US, is looking at expanding its operations to Ireland.

A SUPER-STRONG land sale result in the heart of Killarney by the National Park at Port Road, via private auction, “is very good news for Killarney,” says local agent Tom Spillane, as 6.45 acres of residential development land sold for €2.45 million, for a receiver.

Over 1,600 women died in Magdalene laundries — more than double the figure cited by the McAleese report.

Top Killarney residential development land is for sale, guided at €100,000 an acre, for a plot within a short walk of the busy tourist capital.

A woman abused while resident at a children’s home in the North was left suicidal after telling her story before a public inquiry.

Sixty-six people have applied to give evidence about the alleged abuse of child migrants from Northern Ireland, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry has said.

MUSIC NEWS: The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue and co have been busy touring, with Hot Press also reporting the band recently shot the video for their single ‘Superheroes’ in a township in Johannesburg.

The triage system of treating patients was developed by an Irish nurse on US battlefields, Robert Hume reveals.

Vicar St, Dublin

Survivors of Magdalene laundries will begin to receive enhanced pensions and weekly top-up payments from the Department of Social Protection in the coming week, as part of the redress package designed by Mr Justice John Quirke.

The UN has again criticised the refusal by the four orders than ran the Magdalene laundries to offer any money towards compensating survivors.

The justice minister has been ordered to hand over documentation which Nora Wall, a former nun, says she needs for her miscarriage-of-justice case over her wrongful conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl.

In the early ’90s, her lone voice exposed a dark period in history, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

Two of the four Orders which ran the Magdalene laundries have reaffirmed their refusal to offer any financial contribution to the compensation fund for survivors.

Justice for Magdalenes Research says justice not only requires prompt provision of compensation, pensions, healthcare, and other benefits, but also the truth about what happened in the laundries

Less than one-third of Magdalene Laundry survivors have received compensation from the State — one year after Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to victims in the Dáil.

The announced closure of an all-girls secondary school in Limerick poses a massive challenge on the already stressed placement system, a former mayor of the city has warned.

Cardinal Sean Brady’s assistant and coadjutor in the diocese of Armagh has said the religious orders who ran Magdalene laundries need to “consider their responsibilities in a compassionate manner”.

A charity for the prevention of suicide and self-harm opens a centre in Cork today in a bid to reduce suicide levels in the region.

Work is under way to turn a treatment model devised by an Irish suicide crisis charity into a franchise after a number of countries, including the US, expressed an interest in rolling it out themselves.

The Department of Justice has failed in its attempt to coax money from the Magdalene Laundry orders after opting not to drawn on 12 years of almost identical experiences of another department.

The Government was told to scrap its pledge on the cost of the child abuse redress scheme before the most powerful religious order in education would discuss school patronage.

THE fight between the Government and 18 religious orders over a €500 million point of principle has been laid bare for the first time.

One of the most established addiction treatment centres in the country has warned its future is in doubt because of changes to welfare payments.

MUSIC NEWS: Singer, opera composer and champion of African music, Damon Albarn can now add radio presenter to his list of talents.

A Mater Hospital board member who claimed the facility would ignore new abortion laws as they contradict its Catholic ethos has resigned after being overruled by colleagues.

A priest has resigned from the board of the one of the country’s largest Catholic-owned hospitals after its decision to carry out abortions under new laws.

The Mater hospital has over-ruled a leading board member who insisted the facility would not comply with Ireland’s abortion laws.

Magdalene Laundry survivors plan to protest outside the provincial headquarters of a religious order which has refused to contribute to the State’s redress scheme.