Ahh, I found it again! Was gonna post a link to this article in the Irish Times about issues of Parental Rights V's Childrens Rights in Ireland:

"IT IS now 16 years since Judge Catherine McGuinness, as she then was, recommended a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of children in the context of the family.

This arose from her report on what was known as the Kilkenny incest case, where a man had sexually abused his daughter over a number of years and the social services felt constrained from intervening in the family because of the protection given to it by the Constitution. Article 41 guarantees to protect the family and the INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE [my caps] "on which the family is founded". Thus only the marital family has specific recognition.

Article 42.5 states: "In exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral reasons, fail in their duty towards their children, the State as guardian of the common good, by appropriate means shall endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard to the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child."

In her report McGuinness said: "The very high emphasis on the rights of the family in the Constitution may consciously or unconsciously be interpreted as giving a higher value to the rights of parents than to the rights of children.""

Interesting...