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The Holy See and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Is a once-promising journey now going backward

17 November 2017

Watch Professor Mary McAleese's interview about her recent discourse addressing issues of Canon Law and children's rights.

Professor Mary McAleese MRIA, former President of Ireland, delivered a discourse entitled ‘The Holy See and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: is a once-promising journey now going backwards?’ She speaks about her subject area and her relationship with the Academy, saying:

I have such respect for the RIA and its insistence on grounded scholarship that when I was asked I knew I had to say yes to it (her Discourse lecture), that I could not say ‘no’ because I have such respect… I also felt deeply challenged because I knew I was going to have to reach the bar of scholarship that they set. So that’s the challenge.  I think that it’s one of those things that when you become a Member of the RIA there is a part of you that says ‘yippee’ and a part of you that says …‘isn’t this wonderful’…There’s a sense of arrival or docking, perhaps, after a career—a long career in academic life. There is a sense of being called home, becoming part of the Academy and I love that. I have to say that when I was given that honour (there was) a great sense of personal contentment.

Respondents to her Discourse were Professor Imelda Maher, PL&A Secretary, and Professor Siobhan Mullally, Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway.

The full discourse will be availble to watch shortly.

 

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