Shortly after I returned from my time in the U.S. I met with a friend of mine, a bright, preceptive woman in her mid-sixties. I had been away from the middle of October to late November, and though I had kept an eye to the Irish papers, I wasn’t following events in this country too closely. My friend surprised me by saying:
“You were lucky to be out of this country”.

Senator Rónán Mullen asked to apologise to Fr Tony Flannery 

Association of Catholic Priests accuses Mullen of ‘a gratuitous and ill-informed attack’ 

Speaking of Fr Tony Flannery (pictured) Senator Rónán Mullen said “I don’t sympathise with a view that a priest can have whatever theological views they want and expect to continue on in their job”. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

A few days ago Ronan Mullen launched quite an extraordinary, and very personal, attack on me on the Moncrief Show on Newstalk. Brendan Hoban took up the points he made and answered them effectively on the ACP website, so I don’t need to go into them here.
I didn’t happen to be listening to Moncrief on that particular day, but the incident was brought to my attention and I played it back that evening.