ireland is 87% catholic. in an attack on the church unprecedented for an irish prime minister, he told his parliament the rape and torture of children were downplayed or managed to uphold instead the primacy of the institution in power, standing and reputation. his comments come on the heels of a judicial report released two weeks ago which revealed the vatican secretly discouraged irish bishops from reporting pedophile priests to police as was demanded by the dublin government. the report also suggested the diocese of county cork failed to act on the allegations against 19 priests between 1996 and 2009. the vatican says archbishop, also known as the papal nunzio, was recalled to help prepare an official response to irish complaints. but in a statement the holy see said its action denotes the seriousness of the situation as well as surprise and regret at certain excessive reactions. for more we're joined by richard downes the washington correspondent for r.t.e., ireland's national television station. richard,

it was an alternative society within ireland. >> the catholic church here in ireland saw its influence begin to wane with the social upheaval in the 1960s. but in the past 20 years, two factors combined to accelerate that decline. first, sudden prosperity, and then the shocking revelations of sessi sexual abuse. the worldwide recession stopped the so-called celtic tiger in its tracks, but consumerism had already weakened the church's hold on the irish people, who had become far better educated over the previous 40 years. >> they questioned their faith, they questioned the right of bishops to tell them how to live their lives. >> the body blow, however, came from the clergy abuse scandals that hit harder and closer to home in ireland than anywhere else. here, almost everyone knows someone who's been affected. maybe we as older people did a lot of covering up. we were also into appearances, putting our best foot forward, saying the right things. i think with all the scandals that have been revealed, it certainly made people think more and question lot of things that were happening. >> ma

seems like northern ireland's come through that dark period. one the reasons is i think some of the sports men like yourself have been really excelling. do you feel the weight of the expectation of the irish on your shoulders? >> a little bit. but i don't mind that. i don't mind carrying that around with me. because if what i do on the golf course provides hope for the people of northern ireland, then i can't really do a much better job than that. >> are you irish or british? can you be both? >> it's hard. i'm northern irish. i carry a united kingdom and -- a british passport. it's a hard one -- it's hard one to sort of answer because i've got my choice. i can play for ireland, i can play for great britain. it's a tough one. i mean -- it's always going to be -- i'm always going to have to answer that and deal with that question because of where i grew up and it's -- i regard myself as northern irish that's all i can really say. >> that's probably the diplomatic answer as well. >> yeah. have to be. >> did you have a tough upbringing, would you s

i'm here in ireland reading every paper just in case. i will move ahead.he lacies lived in cottage and palace. in 1848 dozens of families left cottage and the adjoining towns of pad ox, dogs town and palace. i find no mentions of evictions in the newspaper. 731 reported people the largest eviction of a town land in one day happened not 20 miles from cottage and palace in april of 1849. the story had one short paragraph about it in the paper. could it be that most evictions did not make it to the newspaper unless someone died? in the news of january 19th 1848, judith was ejected off a small farm by the landlords james and john parker. she wandered in want without shelter and entered her former abode on the 18th of august last. for this forceable possession shes tried and sentenced to 6 months confinement which punishment of and died of natural causes. eventually i find mention of the easterly of conwell evicting tenants in the near by town land. september 13, 1848 the newspaper says on monday last the agent of lord kwanwell attended by sheriff, police and b

i can play for ireland, i can play for great britain. it's a tough one. i mean it's -- and it's always going -- i'm always going to have to answer that and deal with that question because of where i grew up. you know, i regard myself as northern irish and that's all i can really say. >> that's probably the diplomatic answer, isn't it? >> yeah, it would have to be. >> did you have a tough upbringing, would you say? did you have much money as a family? >> no. no, not at all. my mom and dad worked very hard to give me the best chance not just in golf but in life. you know, i was an only child, you know, my dad worked three jobs at one stage. my mom worked night shifts in a factory. >> what did they do? >> my dad was a bar manager and worked in separate places, you know, in the daytime and then in the night. and my mom worked in a factory that produced tape and sort of industrial goods and she worked night shift in there. so they worked very hard. and i -- being so young, you're sort of oblivious to it all, and it's only when you become a little older and a l

we give 7 billion pounds to the bailout in ireland. we give 100 billion, this is the british taxpayer, 100 million a year for their -- the quality of the banks in this country for insurance purposes and other purposes, why does the prime minister does not get on his back and go down to the friends of the city? instead -- >> we got the gist. the prime minister. >> first of all, mr. speaker, it is this government who has put a bank levee on the banks so they are paying more in every year than they paid in the bank bonus tax under the last government. in terms of greece, i kept us out of a european bailout of greece. in terms of ireland, i would say that economy is so close and integrated with ours it is right we give them support. that, i think, is the right approach but this government is being tough in making sure the banks pay their fair share. >> severe droughts, conflict in food prices have combined viciously in the horn of africa. creating desperate hunger and threatening the lives of millions. with eight agencies short of funds, w

and the european central bank was to take a more lenient position to ireland you have u.s. treasury secretary geithner saying wait a minute take a hard line for a for ireland you have to crush it because we've the u.s. banks financial casinos have insured irish debt same thing with greece it's the u.s. treasury that comes in and says wait a minute our financial system has turned into a i'd shape we've insured the greek debt and we can't afford to take a loss so your europeans have to take a loss you have to impoverish your later so that our financial well our wall street to see you know capitalist firms like goldman sachs can make a telling and they can't pay their people one hundred million dollars a year in salary if you don't impoverished your labor we're making money off you and that's the financial system that's what we call stability so you may think it's our risk but it's not our risk if we're telling you what to do. what you were referring to risk isn't a risk if you let the u.s. treasury act is the battering ram for the wall street firms that insure the rest and sa

ireland fought back, and to this day ireland has regained control of all of its land except northernreland. >> reporter: traditionally, it's thought of as a war between two religions, catholic and protestant. >> when i got there, i couldn't believe how segregated the society was. there were walls running through the neighborhoods where these kids are from that keep them apart and basically sends the message that they shouldn't be friends with each other. that really inspired me to do something to make a change in kids' lives. >> reporter: so michael founded full court peace with basketball to cross the religious divide. >> basketball in northern ireland is not very popular, but it's neutral. sports like cricket and rugby are predominantly protestant, and gaelic football and hurling are predominantly catholic sports. i just realized that i could get both kids to play. they wouldn't look at a basketball and say "oh, that's only for the other side." >> reporter: now, a few years into the program, it seems their idea was a slam dunk. meet mark and dean. >> i'm protestant. >> and i'm a ca

well we know in greece we've already listed that last episode ireland has the national airline ports power stations energy suppliers transport systems sporting assets and even the irish national stud well thank you very much but i'm not for snow. whatever that is i have something to do with horses and it's all about horse eamonn it k. and then spain is selling thirty percent of its state lottery now this is the biggest lottery in the world it's called el gordo it's been around for one hundred fifty one years but spain is not as badly indebted as other european countries but bond yields have soared so because of this they have to sell el gordo the company recorded three billion euro net profit in two thousand and nine on sales of nine point eight billion euros meaning the sell off will reduce treasury income by about one billion euros a year ok so spain is now being attacked by the financial terrorist of people who sell short bonds to destabilize the country's finances in preparation of extracting wealth and these of course naked short sellers which are counterfeiting they sell things

right now we're in a death spiral in greece ireland and portugal because of all the austerity measures that the economies are just spiraling into nothing then what chumps these irish are because remember when they were the first to go into the austerity butchering they didn't revolt in any way and then when athens started to revolt in the street the people in ireland are very proud of themselves oh we're in the greek we are thinking that we're not out there actually defending our interests and you see that there are no plans anywhere where the greece portugal or ireland to develop a real economy at all irish finance minister michael noonan has pleaded with consumers to replace their clapped out refrigerators and tumble dryer so where are these tumble dryer is in refrigerators made probably china or germany it's not going to help their economy at all consuming does not help their economy producing helps their economy companies that the irish government is encouraging to relocate to ireland and in dublin now are companies like zynga that create virtual currency which is a backdoor way in

clearly life in ireland is very tough for people at the moment perhaps e anger spilling onto the streets in dublin in the way that we seen the violence in athens are people getting extremely angry about this what is the mood people are very angry and now a protest movement is beginning there were a thousand people outside the parliament today protesting against cuts in education for special needs children there is a major movement of opposition there was a few thousand on the streets outside parliament last week in regard to costs of hospitals i would predict from september on when parliament week begins after the summer break there would be major mobilization zob. we cannot pay anymore these banks have to speculators must take their own losses and i would predict a major movement of people which we in the socialist party are to. change in policy that banks and financial institutions the financial markets and what's been called licola should give a crutch of control for developing helping to develop society in ireland and throughout europe rather than creating crisis of the crisis for hu