A clearly annoyed Taoiseach delivered a sharp message to his Coalition partners and his own ministers, telling them to talk to him first before going public with issues.

When Christine Buckley’s older son, Darragh, came home from school one day, fresh from a teasing about his afro hair and frustrated that he didn’t look like everyone else, she told him never to be afraid of standing out from the crowd.

Christine Buckley's son has told mourners at her funeral that she had an infectious personality and inspired everyone she met.

The funeral of Christine Buckley will take place in Dublin today.

Tributes have been pouring in following the death of Christine Buckley, one of the first people to speak out publicly about institutional abuse in this country.

Christine Buckley, who died yesterday, was a lifelong campaigner for survivors of institutional abuse.

Christine’s closest friend Carmel McDonnell Byrne says she hopes she will never, ever be forgotten for her hard work.

Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald was among the politicians who paid tribute to Christine Buckley, who she described as a “courageous and consistent campaigner” for the rights of the child.

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

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, has paid tribute to Christine Buckley.

Christine Buckley, an institutional abuse survivor who co-founded the Aislinn foundation, has died.

The future of a memorial to victims of institutional child abuse is in jeopardy after planning was refused for the €500,000 project in Dublin’s north inner city.

An Bord Pleanála’s decision to turn down a memorial to victims of institutional abuse, planned for the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square in Dublin, represents a slap in the face for those who were treated outrageously by nuns and brothers of religious orders under the unseeing eyes of state agencies.

Cardinal Seán Brady is the latest in a line of cardinals across the world facing criticism from clerical sex abuse victims for being allowed to vote for the next Pope.

The Irish Refugee Council has said it is awaiting legal advice as to whether children in the asylum system are included under the wording of the upcoming referendum on children’s rights.

It was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the State and now a memorial called Journey of Light will be built to remember survivors and victims of clerical sex abuse.

I’VE been asked a lot during the last week whether I think Cardinal Brady should resign.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland is ignoring growing calls for his resignation following failure to contact parents, gardaí, or child protection services after he was warned that five children were being abused by the notorious paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth.

A STATE-FUNDED group for survivors of institutional abuse spent over €80,000 on travel and subsistence, and over €30,000 on office administration over two years.

A FREE professional helpline for survivors of abuse, which has had its budget slashed by 25%, says it needs to expand its services to deal with thousands of unanswered phone calls.

Counselling services across the country were on standby today as survivors of clerical abuse mark the first anniversary of the harrowing Ryan Report.

The Pope's long-awaited pastoral letter to Irish Catholics following the clerical child sex abuse scandals will be published today.

Irish survivors of clerical abuse have said a letter from Pope Benedict to Catholics in this country is "years too late".

ABUSE victims have maintained the pressure on Cardinal Seán Brady to resign over his handling of paedophile priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, despite issuing another apology yesterday in which he acknowledged shame at his own past failings.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland remained under intense pressure to step down tonight despite apologising for not alerting gardaí about a paedophile priest.

Labour's justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte has called for the resignation of Cardinal Seán Brady.

Cardinal Sean Brady is defending his role in connection with an alleged cover-up of child abuse in the 1970s.

CLERICAL abuse victims pointed the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, towards the Vatican when they heard about his appeal to parishioners to fund outstanding diocesan compensation and legal fees.

IT seems the clergy, for all the fantastic work they have done for education in this country, are incapable of learning.

POPE Benedict has admitted clerical child sex abuse in Ireland had led to a breakdown in trust in the Church’s leadership but he failed to issue an apology.

THE Pope must come to Ireland and hear directly from those who have been abused if there is to be any possibility of reforming the institution, a leading survivors’ group has claimed.

People are being urged to come out today in support of those struggling to cope this Christmas in the wake of job losses or a change in economic fortunes.

SURVIVOR groups are divided over plans to move ahead with a €500,000 memorial to commemorate those who were abused as children in residential institutions.

Sex abuse survivor Christine Buckley has been awarded European Volunteer of the Year.

THE Sisters of Mercy have offered to contribute cash and properties worth over €127.5m in compensation to the victims of physical and sexual abuse in former industrial schools run by the order.

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has agreed to give victims of clerical sexual abuse advance details of the Dublin Archdiocese report as helplines prepare for an avalanche of calls from survivors.

Senior Catholic clerics are to consider increasing compensation for survivors of abuse in Church-run institutions, it emerged today.

GLENN GANNON’S latest role has him dressed as a French nobleman, one of a group solemnly handing over the keys to Bologna to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in the final series of The Tudors. It is a long, long way from the time he lived on the streets of Dublin, drinking himself into oblivion.

THOSE honoured at this year’s People of the Year Awards reflect a year that gave us the best of times, and the worst of times.

One of the country’s leading summer schools is to honour victims of clerical child abuse, it was revealed today.

VICTIMS of institutional abuse want the Government’s action plan in response to the Ryan report, to be published tomorrow, to include more frequent inspections of children in care and a national child care policy to be established.

THE Pope has made what is being widely interpreted as his first official comments on the child abuse scandal in residential institutions here.

Thousands of people marched yesterday from the Garden of Remembrance, down O’Connell Street, past the GPO, to Dáil Éireann in solidarity with the survivors of sexual abuse in Catholic residential institutions down through the decades.

An eerie silence fell over Dublin today as more than 5,000 men, women and children weaved through the city in solidarity with the victims of abuse in church-run institutions.