At the mercy of religion

The decision to give the Sisters of Charity sole ownership of the new €300 million National Maternity Hospital betrays the memory of Savita Halappanavar and other victims of the Church’s chokehold on modern Ireland, writes Colette Sexton

I have visited St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin – which will be the new location of the National Maternity Hospital – a few times in the past year. On each occasion, I have walked past a statue of the Virgin Mary on the way to the hospital’s main entrance.

These kinds of holy statues are dotted everywhere across Ireland. They are in housing estates, schools, parks, town squares and on roadsides. They are ...