Tony Flannery

The schedule of my Speaking Tour in the United States has now been finalised. It covers eighteen cities in one month. The schedule is as follows:
Begins in Washington DC on October 22nd.
Then on to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, Boston, Syracuse, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis (3 day Call to Action conference, at which I am a keynote speaker), Sarasota, San Antonio, St. Louis, Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, finishing on November 20th.

I am not a great fan of Garth Brooks, or of big concerts in general. Personally I have no strong feelings about the cancellation of the concerts, though I am sorry for all the people who had bought tickets, and were looking forward to the event. But the circumstances around this cancellation, I believe, highlight something about modern Ireland that I think is particularly unpleasant, and indeed destructive. I refer to the extraordinary level of negativity, how there are invariably people who object to everything and anything that is proposed and who organise opposition to it.

About a month ago the leadership of the ACP met with three members of the Bishops Conference, and brought up a number of issues relating to the Irish Church. They asked them to bring their views to the full Conference, and to give a response. One of the issues raised was the question of censored priests. The Bishops response to this was as follows:

“The issue of censored priests was also reported.