Yet another rocket is due to hit the Catholic church in Ireland. Sheila Rauch Kennedy comes to Dublin in mid September to promote the Irish launch of her book Shattered Faith, which sent shockwaves through the church in the US and particularly in Massachusetts. Mrs Rauch Kennedy was married to Joe Kennedy junior - the son of the assassinated AG Bobby Kennedy - and they had twin sons and divorced after 12 years.
He remarried and sought an annulment of their marriage from the Catholic church. She refused to accept that her marriage had never existed and that her view was not considered by the church authorities. The book is the story of her fight to prevent the church telling her the marriage she believed in, and in which her children were born, had never taken place.
Shattered Faith was a huge seller in the US, particularly among women who have now formed associations to oppose what they see as a male church hierarchy ignoring their existence when it suited them. Mrs Rauch Kennedy is pursuing her case to the Vatican, demanding that the Boston church's decision to grant an annulment be overturned. Meanwhile her husband is fighting for his political life as many voters in Massachusetts turn against him in his bid for the Governorship. The book is being published in Ireland and England by Poolbeg Press.