The consent given by parish priests in the 1950s to allow the National Library of Ireland (NLI) to microfilm their records of births, marriages and deaths was courageous.

The recently published 2014 report of Registrar General, Kieran Feely, relies on speculation about ‘marriages of convenience’ based on unattributed ‘anecdotal evidence’ — as near to an oxymoron as one will get — for concluding that because civil marriages are increasing they are partly accounted for by marriages of convenience.

I have just come across the curricula for a Dublin girls’ school.

On April Fool’s Day, 1986, a survey of 404 Irish students was published in a national newspaper.

When I’m obliged to have an NCT on the family car I would never expect to be forced to fill in a form showing my nationality, my maiden name my PPSN, my religion and my ethnic background.

So the Government recognises that local authorities have made a dog’s dinner of the supply of domestic water, setting up an autonomous, Irish Water corporation. A poisoned chalice, is it not?

Ms B. Cotter (Letters, Irish Examiner, March 15) is unlikely to have been schooled in civil rights or a citizen’s constitutional obligations, for these are in tension with her Catholic Church’s interests.

Patrick Kelly’s letter (January 31) on behalf of his — in his words — “bastard father,” and those like him who were castigated by Church pulpiteers and others, (1916, Granard, in his case) bears reflection.

The hype at the recent National Media Conference, about a “golden age for radio”, sits uncomfortably with the future for RTÉ Radio 1. The latest Ipso MRBI survey of listenership shows a dramatic shift to local radio among younger people.

John Colgan (Letters, Jul 11) feels strongly about having to subsidise churches in this country by way of the tax breaks they enjoy as registered charities.

John Colgan (Letters, Jun 14) asserts that abortion is practised in Ireland by citing the treatment of ectopic pregnancies.

The Conference of Religious of Ireland’s (CORI) recent statement on the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill includes views which I could share.

The Guide [to the forthcoming referendum] cites one of two existing Constitutional rights of children, namely the corollary of Article 42.4: “The State shall provide for free primary education…” and the second child-specific right, which the Commission has chosen not to inform voters of, and which is, and has been shown to be relevant to voters.

The statement issued by Government sources that the proposed children’s rights amendment to the Constitution will be a “strong, robust article designed to enhance the constitutional protection of children from abusive situations” is somewhat lacking in credibility.

I have attended MacGill Summer School for 30 years.

I was listening to Nora Owen on RTÉ radio deprecating the making of money out of the sale of her grand-uncle, Michael Collins’s hair lock, at an auction recently.

During his athletics career, he was known as the Chairman of the Boards. But Eamonn Coghlan was only too delighted to be surrounded by a fleet of real board chairmen in New York last night.

IT IS clear that the Government never sought to abolish the Irish diplomatic channel to the Vatican at all, but rather to save money by combining the two embassies in Rome into one, serving both Italy and the Vatican.

MUCH is being made — properly so — of the abuse of human rights of the mothers, children and orphans who were incarcerated in Magdalene homes run by the churches and facilitated by the State.

Stoneacre combines a top-end finish by its designer owners with gorgeous gardens and a spectacular setting, writes Tommy Barker.

WE will be in a national economic emergency for years.

A Cavan man accused of murder told gardaí he would have caused ‘’chaos’’ if he went to the deceased’s funeral, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

IARNRÓD Éireann’s corporate communications manager Barry Kenny, in his lambasting of economist Dr Seán Barrett (Irish Examiner letters, January 1), writes that “this country still suffers from an infrastructural deficit”, and by this he meant rail and bus infrastructure. I agree.

WILL a private buyer come forward for Dromquinna Manor, one of the country’s finest waterfront homes?