*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

‘Democracy under threat’, warns Irish Primate

16 September 2016

CHURCH OF IRELAND

“Real situations”: Dr Richard Clarke

“Real situations”: Dr Richard Clarke

TOO much public discourse today is based on the appeal to identity and to emotion rather than on proper dispassionate discussion on public issues, which is an essential for a functioning democracy, the Irish Primate, Dr Richard Clarke, told a meeting of the British-Irish Association (BIA) in Oxford on Saturday.

Emphasising the need for a better quality of public discourse across society, and the need to “reject any notion that truth can be treated as disposable”, he warned of a loss of empathy as a basic and vital human quality. He suggested that the foundations of democracy were under threat today in Western Europe in a way that has previously been unthinkable since the end of the Second World War.

Dr Clarke also touched on his belief that “legacy” issues in Northern Ireland still need to be prioritised — not least because so much of the public discourse in Northern Ireland continually returns to these issues.

With regard to victims and survivors of “the Troubles”, Dr Clarke said that the term “legacy” in itself “can sound too abstract when in fact the issues relate to real, not abstract, situations”; people still needed a great deal of public support (and not always financial).

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Inspiration: The Influences That Have Shaped My Life

September - November 2024

St Martin in the Fields Autumn Lecture Series 2024

tickets available

 

Can a ‘Good Death‘ be Assisted?

28 November 2024

A webinar in collaboration with Modern Church

tickets available

 

Through Darkness To Light: Advent Journeys

30 November 2024

tickets available

 

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)