Abortion is firmly back in the headlines.And then a UK family planning organisation announced it was to open an abortion clinic in Belfast next week.
The priest’s actions in Mitchelstown united in outrage people on both sides of the abortion debate. Parents were incandescent that a child, with intellectual or physical disability could be termed a "punishment", that the priest allowed her to continue speaking having made this comment, and that he didn’t called an immediate halt to further talks planned for masses later that day.
But the Belfast announcement has seen both sides of the abortion debate return to their traditional dugouts and has provoked the typically strong reactions that have come to characterise abortion.
All of this has come at a time when the abortion timebomb is about to explode in the Republic again. An expert group is expected to report as early as this week on how the State can comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling, which found Ireland failed to implement the 1992 X Case ruling to enable women to have an abortion when their life is at risk during pregnancy.
Almost two years ago, the Strasbourg-based court ruled that a woman had been denied her rights when, despite her life being endangered by her pregnancy, she was unable to procure an abortion in Ireland.
The Government agreed then it would do something to implement the legislation and an expert group was established which was supposed to report last July.
The group got a three- month extension to the end of September, but as of last week, had still not submitted its findings.
Just last week, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties launched an eight-page complaint about the Government’s inaction with the committee of European ministers responsible for ensuring court rulings are implemented. It is particularly critical of statements made by Lucinda Creighton, the European affairs minister, who has been quoted as saying the State was not bound by the court’s decisions.
And, in a pastoral letter delivered in 1,360 parishes last Sunday — the same day as the woman spoke in the Mitchelstown church — the Catholic Bishops of Ireland said the Government was "under no obligation" to legislate for abortion due to the EU ruling. In his homily at the Killala diocesan pilgrimage to Knock, Bishop John Fleming also warned political representatives they faced "a critical decision" in responding to the ruling.
More immediately, the decision by Marie Stopes International to open a clinic in Belfast next week will have a huge impact on women in the Republic. Last year, more than 4,000 who gave addresses in the Republic travelled to Britain for an abortion.
Now they will no longer have to travel overseas. They can just drive, be driven or board a train to Belfast rather than feel, as many do, that they are being banished off this island. Already yesterday, women from the Republic were contacting the service to see if they could book appointments.
But not unlike here, the provision of abortion has been a legal grey area in Northern Ireland and so there is little political will to legislate to clarify matters.
Abortion laws which allow terminations up to 24 weeks in England, Wales, and Scotland do not cover the North. Yet it is legal to terminate a pregnancy if the mother’s life is in danger or there is a risk to her mental or physical wellbeing.
It is interesting that Marie Stopes decided that now was the time for them to move into the North.
According to the medical director of the new clinic, having sought legal advice, they believe that once the strictly adhere to "limits" as set down in the North, they could perform abortions without reprimand.
The North’s Regulatory and Quality Improvement Authority does not have quality standards in place for an abortion service in Northern Ireland.
Therefore, according to Marie Stopes, it will run its Northern operation in compliance with the Care Quality Commission guidelines operating in the UK.
The Irish Family Planning Association, however, is not sufficiently happy with the legal basis of their operations in the North. Yesterday it said it would not be providing contact details of the Belfast clinic until they "have full information on the legal basis and medical protocols upon which the service will operate".