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ARE WE SEEING THE END OF MEDICAL GENERAL PRACTICE AS WE’VE KNOWN IT?

“GPs will never return to the pre Covid model we knew”.

So said a very senior medical professional to me on Thursday.

Covid has given the GPs two years away from seeing lots of patients face to face everyday.

Instead they have dealt with patients over the telephone etc.

This has been much less stressful for GPs and given them a new, easier relaxed lifestyle.

Many GPs have now gone on to a three day a week basic – again introducing them to less stress and more relaxation.

But the impact will be felt by patients – especially older, more sick and disabled patients. Seeing their doctor helped them not be so isolated.

Many of them are not great communicators on the telephone.

Many of them cannot use laptops or mobile phones for texting and emailing.

To get to see a GP now you’ve got to get past a battery of receptionists, practice managers, nurses and nurse specialists.

In a big practice you will not get to see the same doctor each time you visit – making the experience much more impersonal.

Most young doctors don’t want to be GPs any longer.

Many GPs are leaving general practice and indeed the NHS.

There is a worrying shortage of GPs.

Men are not becoming GPs. Most are now women.

I’m very worried about where General Practice / Primary is heading.

I’m worried about how it will affect all of us and medicine in general.

100 replies on “ARE WE SEEING THE END OF MEDICAL GENERAL PRACTICE AS WE’VE KNOWN IT?”

The sometimes unsatisfactory but overall far better (than the HSE) NHS pays GPs very well, but it is not an easy job (a cousin’s wife is one), and, as you say, the social contact matters a lot for an older cohort. The 26 counties has a similar issue, but it’s more a bad to utterly dire descent in terms of service and value for money. It’s one of these legacies of COVID like much increased work from home which has both good and bad to it.

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In mainland UK, generally, the GP role appears to be the preferred career option for Asian females as it fits in with family life unlike the hospital doctor role. White British GP’s are more inclined to emigrate to Australia or Canada.

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@12.45am The vast majority of ‘Asian females’ are British. British females from an Asian background are the highest achievers at ‘A’ leve;. They out perform members of any other ethnic group. They are therefore more likely than any other ethnic group to be accepted by a medical school. Just to put the truth on the record.

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Reply to; @12.45 To put the matter of Asian females straightsays:
Sep 17, 2022 at 9:27 am
Well said, I absolutely agree with you, and, recognize how lucky I have been, to be treated for a very serious condition, by a competent, highly skilled UK/Asian doctor.

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12.45 Yes, there is a brain drain of native British doctors attracted by excellent working conditions and opportunities for world class training not to mention spacious living accommodation in a wonderful climate. What’s not to like but it’s a big loss to patients relying on the NHS.

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11.24 can you blame them? If they can get away, why not. you try working in a parish with a legacy of unchristian issues you’ve inherited and being reliant on moody supports all working to their own individual agenda. No barrel of laughs I can tell you.

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12.48 Exactly, time to reflect enabled many to eliminate unnecessary bullshit and toxic interactions from their lives. Win, win.

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NHS GP service sounds similar to the RC situation, skating on very thin ice with the public. The world is becoming like “no country for old men or indeed women” – not good enough, we are not having it, no surrender!

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9.03 Comment at 1.44 was NOT mine. You are trying to stir things up again for no reason. Nincompoop.

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5.23 No it wasn’t you fool. I am not afraid to take credit for my comments.

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5.48 Sorry to disappoint you NOT but it wasn’t me. If ‘No Surrender’ is commensurate with Zionism then there must be quite a few Zionists commenting on this blog 😁. Feck off Canon Bull.

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Modeh Ani….there are some wonderful GP’s. I have two of them . They could not be more caring with vast medical acumen. Bill Mulvihill

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It is amazing to read that the Holy Mother Church is NOT getting the blame for the downfall of General Practice Services.
Out of respect for Our Queen Elizabeth there will be NO blog on Monday so Sundays will run till Tuesday.
RIP Your Majesty well down Good and Faithful Servant.

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10.21
The Sisters of No Mercy handy with a spade ♠️ in the middle of the night.
The Daughters of Zero Charity – see the 2018 Scottish Child Abuse Enquiry. Irish Branches in Roscrea, Annacotty and other locations nationwide.

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She gave you a generous severance package, Bill.

If you hate her so much and were a man of principle, you wouldn’t have taken it from her. But you went a-begging to her, instead.

Says a lot about the real Bill Mulvihill.

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I absolutely agree, GP Practices have definitely changed since Covid, the most notable being face to face appointments and being unable to book them. Playing pot luck is the order of the day ie you join a telephone queue in the morning and if you are one of the lucky winners you will be awarded a telephone consultation . If not, never mind you can try again the next morning or the one after that and so on.
It’s a bit like the banks they also have not gone back to pre Covid hours and my bank is closed on a Thursday.

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Anonsays:
Reply to; Sep 17, 2022 at 8:35 am
It’s a case of; “Live horse ’til you get grass” LOLS.

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1.52 I am aware of the RCC ranking as a prostitute since the day i was strolling into Maynooth College as a student with Neil Dargan who quipped as we went through the gates; its a great big hurr and everybody wants a ride; John Connolly when he was still taking the medicine from the Slut said at Brady s minimalist dinner table ; ” If he thinks so little of her, why doesn’t he just leave?” Connolly thinks a lot less of her now than I do; and Sweeney loathes her.

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6.34: Wise to leave.?Really? Mulvihill didn’t have courage: He got fed up but waited till he had enough cash to go…then he got a mighty handshake of money…and is now debauching himself everywhere. Courage!! Utter shite. If Bill had any moral integrity he’d have gone long ago when he lived through the scandals which he claims was a factor in his leaving…20 years after living with scandals…staying silent except whispering his abhorrence in homilies…Yet, he lived the high life!! Can you not see the blatant hypocrisy and moral and spiritual morass in his behaviour, a behaviour which he now daily condemn in others?

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Ah! Dr V. . Anti-vaccination activist. (There may be other, but less kindly, ways of describing Vernon here.) The eccentric whose anti-vaccination advice/scaremongering (Take your pick.) is helping to keep NHS medical personnel and other resources tied up with unvaccinated (and, likely, unnecessary) covid-19 patients, to the probable detriment of other patients who may consequently suffer, or die.
Yes, a well-spring of medical wisdom is Vernon.

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https://medicalcrisisdeclaration.com/
On the 10th September 2022 medical doctors and scientists from all over the world declared that there is an international medical crisis due to the diseases and deaths co-related to the administration of products known as ‘COVID-19 vaccines.’ All signatures to this declaration are made public.

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12.25
Can you imagine the mortality rate had the majority of people the world over NOT allowed themselves to be vaccinated? No? Nor can I. Likely a figure too high even to want to imagine.

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@ 2:47pm
According to the Central Statistics Office Ireland, in 2020, 31,765 deaths were registered. Of the 2020 total deaths, 16,450 were male while 15,315 were female. According to the Central Statistics Office there were 33,055 deaths registered in 2021, 17,212 were male while 15,843 were female.
The 2021 total is 4.1% higher than in 2020. Ireland’s ‘covid vaccination’ programme has been in operation since December 2020. Citizens need to heighten their political consciousness rather than let their imaginations go into overdrive. Hundreds more doctors and scientists signed the international medical crisis declaration since this morning.

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@ 2:11pm
Bileen if what you say is true and that’ s how you and Dargan felt at that time why didn’t you just fuck off. If we’ve to believe what you say about those other arseholes you mention, no wonder there has been all the scandal we here about. It’s the treacherous evil scum who infiltrated these seminary’s who will have to account for their actions. Our Holy Mother The Church will still be here long after these traitors are toast. ‘The Gates of Hell shall not prevail’

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Agreed, 6.31.
Bill isn’t claiming to be wise after the event, but long before it: his ordination.
Can you give a COHERENT answer to that poster’s comment, Bill?

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No, blubberbing Bill can’t give ANY answer, never mind a coherent one. (And please, Pat, don’t censor my comment, because you have feelings for Bill. It’s begun to look utterly pathetic!)

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I found some doctors quite poor in terms of communication and illegible scrawl writing before computers took over. Chemist shop had to ring my gp whats that scrawl saying?

Usually we are experts in communications cos we deal with various communications problems every day. Doctors were the the worst group that we had dealt with in the past. They especially some doctors don’t know how to speak to us. There was one doctor that I had to fire him for his gross ineptitude in the past.

Speaking of NHS, I found them brilliant in the past as its good service. NHS is still better than hse now in my view.

I agree its going towards the end of medical general practice. It’s quite clear as a bell from outside perspective.

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…. and where is Rawhide these days ? No doubt ‘rediscovering’ himself, or at least pretending to do so, so that he can return to some cushy number and carry on as before. That’s usually what happens. I’d have more respect for the Church if it applied a “one strike and you’re out ” policy, rather than giving people repeated chances and being taken for a ride again and again. We see it happen all the time. Whereas, in the world in which I work, if you put a foot wrong in some serous way and let down the side and yourself, then you get shown the door and have to move yourself on. I think that will be most people’s experience. But, not for the likes of Rawhide, Roreee, PB JP Lyttle and so many others that we come across on this blog. I guess it’s the ecclesiastical body thinking that they need to help their erstwhile brothers, because one day they too might be in the same position and will be looking for help. So, it’s like an insurance policy for the failings and crimes of the future. Shocking !

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10.06 Where are any of these abusive bastardos clergy swanning around on full pay and with two fingers up to their victims. Stinks to high heaven.

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10.06 just accept that the RC is populated by toxic clergy and their lay individuals committed to invalidating the lives of anyone that threatens their vast web of wrong doing and corruption. Keep safe, keep well and keep away from them.

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10.49
Toxic RC clergy? You haven’t read Rev Dr Gerard McGinnity’s book on RC clergy, ‘Christmen’. If you had, you would withdraw that statement and apologise to our wonderful priests.
God is not mocked.

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10.49 Rotten to the core. So bad now you’d physically smell it coming for miles. They haven’t even tried to scratch the surface in terms of repentance or taking genuine steps to right the wrongs of their members. They should close the door on their way out, a little self respect wouldn’t go amiss all things considered.

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11:49 Are you serious, would you “close the door” and walk away from all that power, wealth and influential connections in Church & State? We’ll be around for a good while yet, Sucker! Get a Grip!

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What’s it like in other churches ? Say an Anglican clergyman/woman gets in to trouble and can’t continue, has faculties / license removed / laicised, then surely they are unemployed and just have to do what everybody else does and get on their bike and look for work. Okay, they may have accrued a bit of pension, but those kinds of pensions are not very generous, and they probably haven’t been able to save that much on a clergyman’s stipend. So, why not with RC priests who are sidelined, can’t work / minister, sent to prison, laicised ? Instead there appears to be a bottomless pit of help that is indefinitely ongoing and they are just looked after, no matter what they have done, and the bill falls to us. I guess it has to do with their sense of them being something special and set apart, all that ontological sacramental character and change nonsense they tell us they undergo at ordination. It all seems very odd and self-serving and well out of step with what happens in the real world.

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I don’t think realise how overwhelmed and under pressure gps are in these times. People are sick , physically and mentally 🤢😷

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9:38 I’ve concluded that the music one is subjected to whilst on hold for up to an hour is deliberately designed to get rid of callers, by sending them completely around the bend.

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10.54: Every service provider you phone has many options which can leave you going crazy. The personal, human approach of old is gone forever. Despite all the wonderful technological ways of keeping in touch, we are, as a people, interacting at surface level only. Just look around you: everyone is texting…to someone just around the corner..!! Meals are now literally silent….eyes firmly fixed on screens..Checkouts at shops are painful as we have to listen to stupid, banal conversations. Drivers are on mobile phones and not hands free ones, posing dangers to others. It’s a crazy yet fascinating world. We bump into one another but don’t encounter. The surgery of old, where you felt cared for is gone. At a local shopping mall, seating for people to sit and chat were removed during covid for health and safety reasons and are not yet restored. Sadly. I feel so sorry for the elderly who often sat there for company and to meet people. The personal human warmth of approach to life is vanishing.

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2.02

Excellent, irrefutable points.

Everyone who reads any post on this blog today should read yours above all others. Such wisdom is rare.

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I dont know whst all the panic is about. General practice never was much more than a glorified, and grossly overpaid, triaging/referral service to REAL doctors: those who actually can help the sick.

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Some GP’s have a natural empathy for patients. They give you quality time at a visit and don’t needlessly rush you. I lived beside
surgery for some years and one of the 3 doctors was especially loved by everyone. He was good. He listened. He was reassuring. I noticed that every Monday morning therd were bigger queues at the surgery. I remarked to him my own observations. As I suspected, all Monday mornings were packed by clients having had bad weekends, psychologically – and simply needed someone to chat with. I admired the 3 doctors for the immense empathy, kindness and care they gave in equal measure to all who came to the surgery. My own GP from this surgery was so kind and most caring to me at a particularly difficult couple of years. Since the pandemic all such close communication and time given previously is now not available unless absolutely necessary. All visits are by appointment only. I do not blame GP’s in any way. Our health system is very broken. Having been in hospital recently I appreciate the almost unbearable, heavy workload of nurses. The system at every level is broken. There should not be a two tier health system in our country. God bless our doctors and nurses. As in all professions we’ll find the ones who don’t care sufficiently.

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Urging Church to remove the sacrament from more schools, Flannery says “sacramental celebrations have become a sham, the religious element is fairly meaningless and the celebrations do more harm than good for the Church”. He added “it’s a circus really” as most teachers are not “believers themselves”.

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11.59: Fr. Flannery is right. For many decades we’ve been concerned about the level of cathechesis in our “Catholic” schools. We know there are un-believing teachers in our schools. We known that many schools use the sacrament days as show pieces for their schools. While the extras surrounding the sacraments are done beautifuĺly- art, music, drama, dancing, photo displays, flowers, cup of tea, school party – the religious dimension is completely overshadowed. When we were celebrating after covid, we did so just with children, parents/guardians and grandparents only. It was more prayerful, meaningful and less fussy. We need to take these special moments from the school back to a parish based approach only. In some schools the teachers and principals are fantastic but I’ve worked in somewhere the principal – men – didn’t care yet extolled the wonderful Catholic ethos!!!

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Would you ever listen to yourself, 2.20?

‘We need to take these special moments from the school back to a parish based approach only’ ? Seriously? And who would be behind all that? ‘Faaaather’, of course.

And you think priests are more believing than teachers?

You need to inform yourself.

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2.20: The time is here for the parish community through the Do this in Memory programme for First Communicants to be implemented in full. Most parishes have trained teams who run the programme. In our parish there are 6 members on the team and it works superbly. All meetings are presented by parents and the monthly mass usually has all children but a few with their parents or guardians. During the mass another group of volunteer parents take the under 6’s to our day chapel for their activities. They rejoin us after Communion. Likewise for Confirmation, there is a Faith Friends Team who facilitate 6 evenings with the classes. These work well and they give the children and young people goid memories. These and other such initiatives are occurring in parishes all around the country. We can build on these.

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Get them young, and start to lose them in the early teens, when their critical faculties start to develop.
Teens are quick to pick up on hypocrisy and bullshit. And the RCC has it in spadefuls.

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@2:30pm
That oul bollox Flannery is right about nothing and don’t call him Father he doesn’t have that title, he’s an apostate. One of the mad reds who’ve gone off the rails years ago. Just look at that rag The Furrow he was involved with you could tell years ago it was not in conformity with Catholic teaching. He should have been dealt with long ago.

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Bishop Nulty has launched a search to find Ireland’s most popular hymn. Those selected will be performed at the “Ploughing a Prayerful Path” on the Kildare & Leighlin stand at the Irish National Ploughing Competitions in Ratheniska from Tuesday 20 to Thursday 22 September 2022.

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What a lagubrious, depressing hymn! Most Catholic hymns are. Joyless affairs!
What A Friend We Have In Jesus… now THERE’S a rousing hymn with spiritual oomph!
Contrast Newman’s
‘Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on,
The night is dark,
And I am far frome home,
Lead thou me on’
with
‘What a friend we have in Jesus,
All ours sins and griefs to bear,
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer,
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer’.
Need I point out the wonderful difference? The latter is hope-filled; the former suicidally ideating.
But the catlicks would never choose the latter, even though it suggests Jesus’ instruction in Matthew that his followers are not to worry about anything, because it’s a Protestant hymn. And they say they aren’t sectarian? Sure.

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Reply to Bishop Denis Nultysays:
Sep 17, 2022 at 12:07 pm
I hope no one votes for any of the sexual abuser and, prolific
hymn composer, David Haas’s hymns. One frequently song at Mass, You are Mine.

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@ 2:26pm

Never mind all them proddy hymns sing our own and give the poly’s a fright!

Sweet Heart Of Jesus.
Jesus My Lord My God My All
Sweet Sacrament Divine.
To Jesus Heart All burning.
I rise from dreams of time.
Hail Queen of Heaven.
O Purest of Creatures.
I’ll sing a hymn to Mary.

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Covid has made people realise there’s more to life than work. How are you supposed to get ur morning and afternoon walk in if you are working and then of course the bit of shopping and Phil & Holly

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Holed up, keeping out of sight, pretending to rediscover his vocation, but no doubt still getting his end away whenever he thinks nobody is looking. I know I’m right.

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4.19: Of course you’re right. He’s doing what you do and need to do – getting your end away wherever possible!! You peeve.

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2.00: Is your life so feckin boring and sexless that you depend on a former abbot to pleasure you? It’s a sex therapist you need to look for!! Idiot.

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Maybe you can recommend a sex therapist as you appear to be an expert on this? You cannot assume that the person who made the comment is an independent third party. Richard caused a lot of hurt and it may well be someone who encountered him outside the monastery. Your comment is crude and judgmental. Think before you write such nonsense.

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4.51: Rather stupid comment. If you’re a regular on this blog, you’ll know quite well that some commenters just want to track down, harass and make fun of former abbot. Or some just get a sex thrill out of his story!! 😂😁🤣😂😁😁😁…get a grip.

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NHS staff are taking part in the Royal funeral procession on Monday. For most onlookers, that’ll be the first time they’ve seen a GP in years.

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Sixmilebridge residents in County Clare, Ireland are alleging skullduggery in supermarket planning application in rural village.

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The place would be down and out if it wasn’t for immigrant workers. They’re the backbone of our NHS. Indeed the backbone of everything. We have a new priest in Dungannon – he’s an Indian fella and a real lovely guy. It beats Ryan McAleer, who outside a pub in Belfast asked my son what he was wanting, and Fr Ryan was certainly not talking about beverages.

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9:38 I agree, the young priests from countries like India and elsewhere appear more sincere and committed than their home grown peers such as Fr Ryan McAleer etc.

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Bishop Pat, any more on Eamon Martin’s lettergate? I am aware of a name of cleric, but not 100% on whether it’s the same.

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I have been reading those tweets, Fr Mulhall or Mr Donaghy, or whatever other perverse creature you are.
They are the amazing testimony of a very courageous priest and man. An inspiration to survivors.
A coward like you is devious and twisted beyond words and comprehension.

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Only a dirty pervert like Donaghy would write this about the pp of Ballymurphy who is a light in the darkness for the wounded. There is no madness there. 🙂only goodness and love which is saving lives.

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Rev Dr Gerard McGinnity necked me, while I lay in bed incapacitated in St Mary’s Oratory, after I overdosed on prescription drugs at Maynooth in Nov/Dec 1982.

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St Mary’s House, of course. I’d have thought that obvious to anyone of moderate intelligence.
I don’t care what you believe

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