It’s an unlikely pairing, I know, but my mind has been drifting between former president Mary McAleese and former footballer Jamie Carragher.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, says he was not consulted about a decision to exclude former president of Ireland Mary McAleese from a Catholic women’s conference in the Vatican.

A leading Catholic cleric has said his office was not consulted over a decision to deny former president of Ireland Mary McAleese access to a conference in the Vatican.

In spite of Ireland passing the marriage equality referendum, the Church has insisted the next World Meeting of Families, which the Pope is set to attend in Dublin in 2018, will be “married life between a man and a woman”.