They were never asked for their consent – but symphysiotomy caused the Irish mothers subjected to it catastrophic long-term health problems. Symphysiotomy is a controversial operation that was seldom used in the rest of Europe after the mid-20th century, but was carried out on an estimated 1,500 Irish women, during childbirth, between the 1940s and 1980s. The procedure involves slicing through the cartilage and ligaments of a pelvic joint (or in extreme cases, called pubiotomy, sawing through the bone of the pelvis itself) to widen it and allow a baby to be delivered unobstructed.  In July, the UN Human Rights Committee called for the Irish government to hold an investigation into the issue. Mark Kelly of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties says. ‘This remains just one of the most appalling things that we have come across’.

Churches are among the few places in the UK that successfully bring people together from different ethnic backgrounds and from different financial circumstances, new research for the Social Integration Commission suggests. The commission appointed Ipsos Mori to carry out a study of the social habits of a cross-section of 400 people, aged from 13 to 80. Its survey suggested that attending a place of worship was the most ‘socially integrating’ activity that people could take part in - bringing together people from across the divides of age, income, and ethnicity. Churches attained twice the average score at bringing people together, far ahead of sporting events. Events such as parties, weddings and going to restaurants scored least well at bringing people from different groups together. Churches also led the way at bringing people of different social backgrounds together.

Roger Bolton writing in the Radio Times asks the question: ‘Do British schoolchildren know what Christmas is?’ In some schools in this country, little is taught about the true meaning of Christmas, possibly because secular staff are unsympathetic to religious education or because of the fear of offending those of other faiths and broadcasters aren’t doing much to remedy this ignorance. It is difficult to find any children’s programmes that regularly deal with faith issues. The Bible Society published a survey earlier this year that claimed that ‘a quarter of children indicated that they had never read, seen or heard of Noah’s Ark’, that a similar proportion had never heard of the nativity, that 43 per cent had never heard of the crucifixion and that 53 per cent had never read, seen or heard of Joseph and his coat of many colours. Does this matter? Roger Bolton says  ‘I think it does, for both cultural and communal reasons.’

As annual school nativity play season gets under way, survey shows baby Jesus being edged out to make room for Elvis, spacemen, footballers and Lord Sugar. Christianity is being banished from school nativity plays as the annual performance of the Christmas story is replaced with bland ‘winter celebrations’, research among parents suggests. Even in schools which retain religious themes, most now opt for a modernised version of the nativity story, often featuring elaborate twists and children dressed as unlikely additions such as punk fairies, aliens, Elvis, lobsters, spacemen and even recycling bins. Examples cited in the survey conducted by Netmums, the parenting website, even included a retelling of the story modelled on The Apprentice. Others told of children dressed as ingredients in a Christmas lunch including carrots, sprouts and – confusingly – pumpkins. Meanwhile, one in eight had said their children’s school had dropped the Christmas story altogether for a modern alternative without religious references.