Reigning champions Oulart-The Ballagh maintained their momentum towards a fourth consecutive title when they easily accounted for a disappointing Cloughbawn in the Pettitt’s Wexford SHC at St Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy.

On the first day of his audit of rhe Sacred Heart Missionaries, the head of the Church’s child protection watchdog yelled ‘stop’.

Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the seven child protection reports were “horrific” and “shocking”, with child protection being ignored in some instances up until last year.

Former Wexford hurling kingpins Buffers Alley face a fight against relegation following their 0-16 to 0-11 defeat by Rathnure in the county senior hurling championship at Enniscorthy.

The absence of special protection for the rights of children in the Constitution has been detrimental for many of the most vulnerable, writes Dr Aisling Parkes

Some of the data published in the first extracts from our most recent census shows that over 80% of Irish people describe themselves as Catholic.

Priests simply cannot reveal what was said to them by penitents, writes Fr Seán McDonagh

CHILD abuse remains a serious threat in Ireland despite over a decade of inquires and reports revealing the suffering of tens of thousands of children at the hands of Church and state.

The abuse of thousands of innocent children in State and church run institutions in Ireland amounted to torture, a scathing report from Amnesty has found.

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin will face tough questions today on clerical child sex abuse scandals, with a major human rights report which compares some of the acts perpetrated to torture.

Dr Martin has not been open about the plan to pay abuse compensation with parish funds, writes Michael Kelly.

POLICE forces around the world admit that, if they are lucky, they manage to intercept just 10% of the narcotics drug smugglers move across national borders.

THIS week the Irish Prison Chaplains’ Report revealed abuse of thousands of our fellow citizens almost on a par with the terrible human neglect and abandonment recorded in the Murphy and Ferns reports.

A CRITICALLY-acclaimed play about one of Scotland’s greatest unsolved mysteries – the disappearance of Moira Anderson, 11, during a snow storm in the 1950s – will hit Cork later this month.

THERE can’t be a person in the country who does not recognise that we must dramatically improve our child protection services.

IT is hard to imagine that a society that has had its failings laid bare by the Ryan, Ferns and Murphy reports; a society that has seen so many vulnerable children die while in the care of the State and, most frighteningly of all, seen scores of immigrant children and minors disappear without trace, should need to be badgered into holding a referendum on children’s rights.

Survivors of clerical abuse tonight rounded on Pope Benedict XVI for not acknowledging senior clergy covered up decades of sickening abuse.

ON December 18, the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), following a survey of 630 primary schools, said that 80% of school principals have “deep-rooted concerns in relation to child protection in primary schools in Ireland”.

ALL anybody has wanted to hear from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the past week has been sincerity and humility.

What the Government promised after Ferns:

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin will today ordain three men into the priesthood.

Eleven men will be ordained to the priesthood in Ireland this year, the Catholic Church said today.

ANYONE who saw the RTÉ programme on Monday night that revealed how our overstretched childcare services can’t protect vulnerable children must be concerned that we learnt nothing from the appalling tragedies lurking in our past.

MOST families will know of the great emotional and practical challenges involved in offering the endless support needed by a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister or even a neighbour’s child, born with intellectual difficulties.

Laois 4-15 Kerry 4-9, Gaelic Grounds

SINN FÉIN is seeking a meeting with ministers Mary Coughlan and Seamus Brennan to discuss an anomaly in a new pension scheme as it relates to farmers.

HORROR, hurt, incomprehension. And that was just how the bishop felt.

Man Dancin’ stars ex-EastEnders badboy Alex Ferns as Jimmy Kerrigan, a Glasgow con determined to put his gun-running past behind him.

THE shellfish industry claimed yesterday it is being stopped dead in its tracks because technical problems are holding up grant payments.

EastEnders' Trevor Morgan has been voted the most hated Soap villain ever.

EastEnders continued its winning streak as it was named top soap at a TV awards event tonight while two of the stars of one its most gripping plots were named best actor and actress.

EastEnders star Alex Ferns is reported to have received death threats from a crazed fan.