Today's other stories in brief
Support for Eames from archbishops
A vitriolic attack on the former Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames, and on the church itself, over the so-called Eames-Bradley report, has received a sharp response from two serving archbishops, writes
PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent.
Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Most Rev John Neill have deplored what they described as “a disgraceful personal attack on Lord Eames”.
The Eames-Bradley proposal that the families of all who died in the Troubles should receive a £12,000 “recognition payment” provoked an angry reaction from Dr Hazlett Lynch of West Tyrone Voice, a support group for victims of paramilitary violence.
He demanded that the church issue an unqualified apology to the “decent victims” of the Troubles who, he claimed, it had insulted.
Dr Lynch’s brother Kenneth, then 22, was one of three RUC officers killed by the IRA near Ardboe, Co Tyrone, in 1977.
He told the Church of Ireland Gazette that “Lord Eames imagined he was engaged in a process that would help victims put the past behind them, and thus facilitate their recovery.
“He and his fellow travellers have done the very opposite.”
In their response, published in this week’s Gazette, Archbishops Harper and Neill said Lord Eames’s “contribution to the Peace Process has been publicly recognised”.
Drug for psoriasis is withdrawn
A drug used by about 60 psoriasis sufferers in the Republic has been withdrawn from the market over fears it may be linked to a rare brain infection.
The Irish Medicines Board yesterday suspended the marketing of Raptiva (efalizumab) after the European Medicines Agency warned that benefits of using of the drug no longer outweighed the risks.
Authorised throughout the EU since September 2004, Raptiva is used to treat adults with moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis who have failed to respond to more common treatments.
The European Commission has requested a review of the drug following reports of serious side effects in patients using it for more than three years.
These side effects included three cases of the potentially lethal brain disease PML (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy), two of which were fatal.
Franciscan dies aged 88
One of the longest-serving Irish members of the Franciscan Order, Br Paschal Williamson, died last evening in a nursing home in Belleek, Co Fermanagh. Aged 88, he served all his 51 years with the order in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal.
A native of Frosses, near Donegal town, Br Paschal was an Irish dance teacher before he joined the Franciscans. He continued to enjoy Irish dancing with fundraising ceilidhe in the friary until a few years ago. He also pursued a hobby of breeding pedigree cattle.