Fighting Irish Stereotype

BY DARYL BJORAAS

Faith Through My Eyes

BY SARAH WHITMIRE

Follow me on my reporting travels across Europe as I find a wide array of religious sects and cultures.
Red — Catholicism
Pink — Sikhism
Yellow — Protestantism
Blue — Judaism
Green — Islam

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All images shot by Sarah Whitmire for Faith & Friction blog for the Walter Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communication.
® Sarah Whitmire 2009

Summayah’s Story

BY SARAH WHITMIRE

As a teenager in Ireland during the 1970s, Summayah Kenna converted from Catholicism to Islam. This video piece tells the story of her decision to follow an unpopular path in a country torn by religious strife.

Click here for Lauren Kawam’s print story on Summayah Kenna.

Abortion in Ireland

BY KRISTYNA MURPHY

DUBLIN—While abortion causes heated debate among Americans, in Ireland the subject is so sensitive and controversial that it’s nearly unspoken. Speaking to someone who has had an abortion—or is considering one—is difficult. “It’s also something you don’t want anyone else to know. You don’t really talk about it,” said Meghan Doherty, the policy and advocacy officer of the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA). “It’s definitely different from America.”

Irish women experience many fears and anxieties because of the stigma attached to abortion. “It’s always considered to be something that happens to everybody else, but it would never happen to my daughter or it wouldn’t happen to me,” Doherty said.

Full Court Peace

Basketball brings Catholic and Protestant teens together in a city that was once a conflict zone of petrol bombs and bricks.

BY ALEXANDRA FLAMINI

BELFAST, Northern Ireland—Teenage boys in red-and-black jerseys sprint down the basketball court, jostling each other for the ball. The swoosh of a two-point dunk generates an encouraging outcry from the coaches.

These teens are Catholic and Protestant high school students playing together in a city steeped in sectarian violence. A volunteer organization called Full Court Peace has brought them together.

Educate Together

BY MEGAN NELSON
Educate Together News Package on religion in Irish schools.

Click here to see Amanda Soto’s print version of this story.

Closed Doors, Closed Minds?

BY ELLE WALLS

Click here to see Kristyna Murphy’s print story on this topic.

New Faith, New Family

One woman’s conversion from Catholicism to Islam

BY LAUREN KAWAM

DUBLIN, IRELAND—Her hair could have been red or blonde or even gray, but it was wrapped in a cream-and-gold-colored hijab. Only her blue eyes and full, rosy cheeks peeked out from behind the traditional headscarf worn by Muslim women.

Summayah Kenna was born into a traditional Irish Catholic family but has been practicing Islam for 33 years. She says her adopted faith has strengthened her trust in God and her love for her family. Over the years her family has come to accept her Muslim husband, Ibrahim, because they see how happy he makes her. “Seeing my family happy strengthened their belief in that I had made the right decision,” she says.

Churches Lose Tight Grip on Ireland’s Public School System

BY AMANDA SOTO

It’s 1:15 p.m. The final bell has just rung. About 200 boys and girls flood the hallways of an eight-classroom primary school, chattering so loudly you can barely hear your own voice. What seems to be a typical grade school scene is not. Not in Ireland, at least.

What takes place in the small school guarded by tall, black iron gates on Dublin’s Ballymun Road is considered by some a novel idea. But to others it’s the only alternative to a school system run by religious denominations.

Unholy Union

Abuse in Ireland’s Reform and Industrial Schools

By Derek Quizon

For nearly 70 years, the Irish government turned a blind eye to allegations of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools run by the Catholic Church. Now, after a long government investigation, survivors are finally telling their stories.

Christine Buckley, one of over 14,000 survivors of child abuse in Ireland’s reform and industrial schools. Photo by Bianca Tuma

Standing no more than 5-foot-2, Christine Buckley doesn’t look like a fighter. She is a tired, frail 62-year-old woman, overworked from years counseling traumatized abuse victims and overwhelmed by the violent memories she deals with as a victim herself. But for the past 25 years, she has fought death threats, personal anguish and a religious institution unwilling to acknowledge its own mistakes to make her story known to the Irish public.