Nationhood Revival Coalition

Young people continue to flee Ireland in massive numbers The Repeal the 8th leadership promised to end young people leaving our shores, with promises of a new abortutopia But they have made the problem worse

🚨 Influential Irish American Catholic organisation the Ancient order of Hibernians have REBUKED former journalist and later President of Ireland Mary McAleese for her BIZARRE comments on Baptism McAleese claims in a new book that baptism is against the 'rights' of a child as they do not 'consent' AOH Chairman Sean Pender has called it 'offensive nonsense': "The Ancient Order of Hibernians expresses its profound disappointment over recent remarks by former Irish President Mary McAleese asserting that infant baptism constitutes a violation of children's human rights. While Dr. McAleese is entitled to her personal opinions, her comments are fundamentally misguided and deeply insulting to Catholic parents who choose to raise their families in accordance with their faith. The brand of secularism masquerading as liberalism reflected in these statements is neither tolerant nor inclusive. Instead, it demonstrates an increasing contempt for religious belief and a complete detachment from the values held by ordinary people. To suggest that mothers and fathers who present their children for baptism are committing a “human rights violation” is offensive nonsense. More egregiously, it devalues the term “human rights violation.” Dr. McAleese’s thesis fundamentally distorts reality by misrepresenting a sacred spiritual gift as a coercive secular contract. Baptism is not an institutional transaction; to the faithful, it is a gift of God’s grace and an act of parental love. The claim that it traps children in a binding, lifelong institutional cage collapses under the weight of scrutiny. In the real world outside the ideological tower, free human will remains entirely intact. A person can, and sadly many do, freely choose to walk away from the practice of faith without any impediment. The ultimate refutation of Dr. McAleese’s thesis is Dr. McAleese herself. She herself was baptized as an infant. Amazingly, that sacred rite did not prevent her from rising to the highest office in Ireland, pursuing higher education, speaking her mind freely, or spending decades publicly opposing Church hierarchy. Her own successful, unconstrained life completely disproves her claim that infant baptism inflicts a lifelong, disabling constraint on intellectual freedom and human rights. Dr. McAleese’s outrage is curiously selective. While ancient traditions across the globe initiate children at birth, including rituals such as infant circumcision, which leaves a permanent physical mark without the child’s consent, she directs her ire solely at Catholicism. That she ignores irreversible physical practices in other faiths while characterizing the gentle, life-affirming waters of Christian baptism as an abuse reveals that this campaign is far less about universal human rights and far more about a specific ideological agenda. The primary right and duty of parents to guide the moral, spiritual, and educational upbringing of their children is a foundational principle recognized in domestic law and international human rights conventions. Parents do not await consent to bestow a name, teach a language, choose a school, or introduce a child to their cultural heritage. To single out baptism as a human rights abuse defies logic. For generations, Irish men and women endured brutal penal laws precisely because they refused to abandon the sacraments and the baptism of their children. Given that sacred heritage, it is tragic to witness a former Irish head of state deploy legalistic gymnastics to demean religious parents and attack the ancient faith of our people. The Ancient Order of Hibernians stands resolutely with parents who embrace their duty to pass their faith on to the next generation. Baptism is not an act of coercion; it is an act of love. No amount of academic posturing can diminish the sanctity of this sacrament or shake the resolve of Catholic families who continue, with pride and conviction, to hand on the faith of their ancestors"