HIGGINS CRITICISES CHURCH AT BROWNE MEMORIAL UNVEILING

Date Published: 11-Nov-2007

The Catholic Church's confrontations with the late Minister Noel Brown and his wife Phyllis came in for criticism by local TD Michael D. Higgins at the uenveiling of a memorial to the Brownes in Inverin.He was speaking at the unveiling of a memorial seat in Clochmor Graveyard.The Galway West TD said the Brownes campaigns sought to usher in what he described as "a decent humanist socialist life for all citizens".But he said this usually involved confrontation with those who held "unaccountable power such as an authoritarian Church or a self-interested profession"He added that neither Noel nor Phyllis Browne ever attempted to suggest they were non-political and they were socialists who spoke and acted from a perspective of the Left.