Tánaiste needs to get tough on Uganda same-sex stance

When former president Mary McAleese remarked in Scotland last month that ‘a very large number’ of Catholic priests are homosexual, the response of the Catholic Church in Ireland was that it was up to Mrs McAleese ‘to raise these matters’, but that the Church does not respond to reported comments of individuals.

Some priests supported Mrs McAleese. Our former president also revealed her research showed a significant number of male suicides in Ireland involved gay Catholics, burdened with an ambivalent contention that their sexuality was ‘evil’.

The same, passive, ‘hear-no-evil, see-no evil’ thinking is now sadly evident in our own Government. The parliament of Uganda passed a bill on Dec 20, which will broaden the criminalisation of same-sex relationships, incorporating penalties that include life in prison and the extradition of suspects from third countries, but Foreign Affairs minister Eamon Gilmore has yet to react with any vigour, determination or sense of purpose.