First up the Sunday Tribune.

Northern Editor Suzanne Breen interviews Gerry Adams’ niece, Aine Tyrell. Tyrell claims that Adams is lying when he says he couldn’t tell party colleagues that his brother was a suspected paedophile because she demanded anonymity from Adams.

Breen writes:

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Tribune, Tyrell was scathing of both the Sinn Féin president and the PSNI over their handling of the case.

She said: “I didn’t know Liam was in Sinn Féin but had Gerry bothered to tell me, I would have waived my anonymity without hesistation. I’d have accompanied Gerry to meet his colleagues in Sinn Féin, to talk to the ard chomhairle about what Liam had done so they could expel him from the party. But Gerry never gave that option.”

The piece continues with Tyrell saying that she never asked Adams to protect her anonymity and had asked him to address the fact that Liam Adams working on youth projects over and over again to no avail.

Under the fold of the Tribune frontpage,  Conor McMorrow reports on Fine Gael’s plans to reshape the electorial system. McMorrow writes:

The Sunday Tribune understands that key figures in the party are finalising an audacious plan to have a ‘Mixed Electoral System’, where 12 TDs will be elected from four regions based on the constituencies used for the European elections. They would be elected on the basis of a list system, which would be a break away from the PR-STV system which has been used in elections since the foundation of the state.

He continues:

A further 134 TDs would be elected in the traditional constituency-based elections and the new slimmed-down Dáil would have 20 less TDs than the current 16 deputies. The party hopes to implement the mammoth changes for the general election after the next one.

The Sunday Business Post leads with a story by Cliff Taylor and Ian Kehoe on the banks and Nama. Titled “State to pay banks less for transferring loans to NAMA”, their piece claims that the state’s bill to transfer loans to Nama will be “considerably lower than the expected €54 billion”.

They write:

Detailed investigation of the first loans to be transferred from the banks to the new agency shows the loans are worth less than previously estimated. The initial Nama plan had said that loads were likely to be transferred at 30 per cent below their original worth, but the indications are that the final discount will now be higher.

Under the Post lead comes a small but interesting piece by Ian Kehoe on how the government plans to tighten up the rules governing the artists’ exemption.

He writes:

The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism is working with the Revenue Commissioners and the Arts Council on a major review of the scheme, particularly who can qualify for tax relief.

Oh yes and I got the Sindo, but it’s all gangs and Brendan O’Connor has a piece called “Stokes twins: pillars of hope”, so we’ll just grab a pic and leave it there!

Links to follow when the pieces go live on the web!

This afternoon saw the Second Stage of the Civil Partnership Bill in the Dáil. After some Fianna Fáil backslapping where they vaulted themselves as champions of human rights and some sharpshooting by Labour’s Alan Shatter on the issue of childrens’ rights, the FF king of obscure pocket fluff, Martin Mansergh took the stage.

In a speech riddled with Biblical imagery of Sodom and Gomorrah, Mansergh went all fire and brimstone.

Mansergh opens with:

This is landmark legislation, which I welcome. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is justified in claiming it as an example of civic republicanism at work.

Back to first principles on the union of a couple, before saying gay marriage is a matter for the people:

A view which has some backing from the wisdom of ages is the one that marriage as we understand it today is probably the best framework for procreating and rearing children. A same-sex marriage or partnership cannot procreate children. I am aware that children of heterosexual marriages may endure appalling circumstances and that children of same-sex partnerships may have a near-ideal upbringing but I am talking about the average situation.

It will ultimately be for the people to decide if the differences which exist are vital and overriding factors or whether the status of marriage should be conferred on same-sex couples. Under the 1938 Constitution such fundamental socio-moral issues have generally been reserved to the direct judgment of the people as a matter of direct democracy, as opposed to the representative democracy which deals with most other questions.

The most striking piece of the speech was Mansergh’s regaling the chamber of Old Testament and the ruined cities of Sodom and Gomorrah:

All of us on the other side of the fence will have received correspondence and e-mails opposing this legislation, in the vast majority of cases on religious grounds. There has been reference to Sodom and Gomorrah and I reread the verses this morning. The iniquity of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah is not actually closely specified.

The word “sodomy” has a certain meaning but there is nothing in the Bible to specify the conduct or relationship to which it normally refers. We are living in the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti and, notwithstanding the use of the phrase “acts of God” by insurance companies we are long past thinking of natural disasters as some form of divine retribution for wickedness or iniquity.

Some non-natural disasters can be linked to bad human behaviour but that is a separate issue.

He continues:

When the civil partnership legislation was published I happened to be in church the following Sunday and the verse of the lament of David for Jonathan was read out, which I would like to read into the record. The verse reads:

“I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been with me, thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen …”

If one studies the Bible closely, one will note that Jonathan was married. No specifics are given of the precise nature of the relationship between Jonathan and David but if one is to refer to the Old Testament, that passage is at least as striking as the passage on Sodom and Gomorrah. Therefore, one cannot draw any definitive conclusions. I am not aware nor have I seen quoted anywhere any statement by Christ on the subject of gay relationships.

Mansergh’s address really is puzzling. While praising the “forward-thinkingness” of the Bill, he quotes the Bible looking arcane clues with the zeal of a fundamentalist searching for divine truth.

In a republic, where every citizen is to be treated equally and the machine of our statehood is bent to protect those natural rights, why are legislators looking to books of control written many Centuries ago to justify the degrading of the rights of those that were not the establishment – including women and anyone else that threatened power. It is truly boggling, but not unexpected for Mansergh to fall head-first down this manhole.

You can read back the Civil Partnership Liveblog here. Thanks to Suzy for setting it up.

Photo: Jaqain (CC-ShareAlike)

The BBC is reporting that Gordon Brown will appear before the Chilcot Inquiry into Iraq *before* the General Election in the Summer. This could have a massive effect on performance of the out-going government in June’s elections.

It was thought that if Brown appeared before the General Election, it would be used like a political football prior to the election, so plans for his appearance were being shelved until after the Summer.

Things took a turn when Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg applied pressure on Brown by asking him what he had to hide and if he would do so before the elections. As expected, opposition MPs jumped on this and Brown was left with little choice, but to volunteer.

In recent days, Brown wrote to the Sir John Chilcot’s investigation offering to appear before the election.

Former PM Tony Blair will before the inquiry at the end of this month.

Photo: Dreamstime (1990)

Yesterday came the news that the team of politicians lost a total of seven stone in a week for RTÉ’s Operation Transformation. And damn are they obsessed with the show. It’s like those people hunched in health farms every morning sharing colonic irrigation war scars.

And they are tweeting obsessively. Well, mostly the Fine Gaelers’ to be fair!

Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd waves buh-bye to the bread sambo.

Senator Jerry Buttimer notches up his loss.

The odd Fianna Fáiler gets into the action too. Here comes Wexford’s Sean Connick.

Even the new Tweeters are eschewing the chance of talking policy to tweet on their weight loss.

Fine Gael’s Tom Sheahan of Kerry South.

Fine Gael’s Senator Phil Prendergast of Tipperary South. All Operation Transformation tweets!

The Defence Forces shows us how it’s done!

And a lil shoutout from the Defence Forces official account.

Is there a mini-competition happening do you think? Perhaps a bet?