NMH RALLIES ‘STIR UP HATE RHETORIC’
ANTI-Catholic rhetoric at rallies outside the Dáil and on social media is stirring up hatred, a Dublin priest has claimed.
On Saturday, hundreds of people attended rallies outside Leinster House calling on the Government to reject plans to develop the new National Maternity Hospital on Churchowned land, calling instead for it to be kept in State ownership.
Just hours after the protests, a statue of the Virgin Mary at Saint Mark’s Church, Tallaght, was destroyed.
Father Bill O’Shaughnessy, 34, revealed that one of his parishioners, who lays fresh flowers next to the statue every week, discovered the damage.
Fr O’Shaughnessy said: ‘One of the parishioners was driving past it and noticed it was strewn across the road. They pulled in and saw it was broken in half, smashed against a timber post.’
The priest said the statue, which has been in place for around two-and-a-half years, has become a prominent fixture in the community, where people stop to pray by it every day.
‘One woman came back to faith because of the prayers they were saying to that statue,’ he said.
Fr O’Shaughnessy believes the damage may be linked to the rallies seen at the Dáil.
‘That kind of anti-Catholic rhetoric is stoked all over the world, particularly in the Western world so it could very easily have been linked,’ he said.
He said: ‘It’s right across social media on a daily basis, top-tier politicians, top-tier medical staff are tweeting about it recently as well, in terms of seeing a cross in a hospital.’
Fr O’Shaughnessy acknowledged that issues like the NMH would always polarise opinions but he called for people to work together.
He said: ‘First of all I think a spirit of calm reason needs to be entered in the modern world. A deep breath before launching attacks, verbal or otherwise, against anybody, any group.’