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Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry

Religious Affairs Correspondent

Patsy McGarry has been Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times since 1997 and has been with the newspaper since 1994. Prior to that he reported for Magill magazine, the Irish Press, the Irish Independent, and Sunday Independent. He was awarded a national journalism award for political comment and analysis in 1993 and the European religion writer of the year award in 1998. Author of three books, the most recent a biography of former President Mary McAleese, published in 2008, he edited a collection of essays on Christianity, published in 2001. He frequently appears on local radio as well as national radio and TV.

Are senior church figures threatening or advising politicians?

Parallels with JFK presidential election campaign

File photograph of Ian Elliott (left) outgoing chief executive of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church with board chairman John Morgan in 2010. Photograph Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times
Low number of prosecutions in clerical child abuse cases noted

Great majority of abuse allegations against priests historic

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin. He says his anxiety is that it would be permissible for doctors to certify that the medical procedure necessary to avert the risk to the woman’s life consisted of the “termination of her pregnancy”.
Archbishop Martin says law will leave unborn with less protection here than in more ‘liberal’ states

First public intervention in debate

Kerry teenager Donal Walsh, who died last night after a battle with cancer. He was known for campaigning against suicide among young people. Photograph: Domnick Walsh/Eye Focus
Kerry teenager who spoke against suicide dies of cancer

Donal Walsh appealed to young people not to take their own lives

The High Court ruled last week that an 86-year-old woman suffering from psychotic depression is to be given electric shock treatment despite the resistance of her family and following a High Court decision last Friday .
Changes to mental health law expected

Pre-existing views of patients on treatments likely to be taken into account

Bishop Christopher Jones and Fr Timothy Bartlett representing the Catholic Church at the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children last January. Bishop Jones described the 1992 Supreme Court judgment on the X case as “morally unacceptable”. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Tone of bishops’ language on abortion an echo of other days

Would that the bishops always had as much passion for protecting children

Archdeacon Leslie Stevenson: was due to be consecrated Church of Ireland bishop of Meath and Kildare on Wednesday. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill
Archdeacon declines appointment as bishop of Meath and Kildare

Archdeacon Leslie Stevenson’s ‘positive concern’ for Church of Ireland prompts him to decline appointment

Ian Elliott described his six years as chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children as “a really remarkable journey, with its highs and lows, obstacles to overcome”. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Church child protection chief to stand down after six years

Ian Elliott has been asked by the Catholic Church in Australia to advise it on setting up child-protection review structures

“One Catholic bishop is said to have complained: ‘Ian Elliott just doesn’t understand us.” Photograph Brenda Fitzsimons
Watchdog Elliott played key role in Catholic Church child safety reform

The church got more than it bargained for in the tenacious chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children

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“I am still baffled at the inertia shown with regard to removing the education of so many of our children from the control of the Catholic church.” Photograph: Scott Smith/Getty Images Religious control of schools is neither tolerant nor inclusive
Abortion Rights Campaign postcard sent to members of the Oireachtas. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy Catholic hierarchy still on a learning curve in dealing with abortion
File photograph of Ian Elliott (left) outgoing chief executive of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church with board chairman John Morgan in 2010. Photograph Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times Low number of prosecutions in clerical child abuse cases noted
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