1. General

This User Agreement governs your access and use of the website www.sistersofmercy.ie (the ‘Site’). The Site is operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Rachamim, 13/14 Moyle Park, Convent Rd. Clondalkin, Dublin 22, Ireland (the “Congregation”, “we” “our” or “us”).

The purpose of these terms of the User Agreement is to let you know what we expect from users of the Site, and what activities are not permitted on or in connection with the Site. If there is anything you do not understand in these terms, in our Privacy Statement, our Cookie Policy and/or any other terms or information published or made available through the Site, please contact us using the contact information at the end of this document.

2. Your acceptance of this User Agreement

By accessing or using the Site (whether or not you are a registered user) you are entering into a binding legal agreement with the Congregation.  By accessing and using any part of the Site, you are agreeing to this User Agreement and you acknowledge our Privacy Statement and our Cookie Policy .  If you do not accept and agree to this User Agreement you must not access or use the Site.

This User Agreement may be entered into by persons who have reached the age of majority or legal age in your jurisdiction and who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. By agreeing to this User Agreement, you hereby represent and warrant that you have reached the age of majority in your jurisdiction and that you otherwise have the legal capacity to enter into, and agree to the terms of, this User Agreement. Please read this User Agreement carefully, as it contains important provisions that exclude and limit our liability to you.

It is also important that you understand fully what personal information we collect from you and receive when you use this Site. For details of the type of information we collect via our Site, our use of such information and to whom we may disclose this information, please read our Privacy Statement and Cookie Policy .

3. Changes to this User Agreement

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms at any time.

We therefore recommend that every time you wish to use or access the Site you check these Terms to ensure that you understand the terms that apply at that time. Your continued use or access to the Site after the posting of any changes constitutes acceptance of those changes.

The end of this document states when the last changes were made to these Terms.

4. Access to the Site

As a user of the Site you will be able to access the Site, including, in the case of Registered Members, our Members’ Area. Subject to the terms and conditions of this User Agreement, the Congregation hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub licensable and revocable license to access and use the Site in accordance with this User Agreement. The Congregation reserves the right to change, upgrade or discontinue the Site at any time, with or without notice or liability to you.

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend access to the Site without notice or liability to you. We will not be liable if, for any reason, the Site (or any part of it) is unavailable at any time or for any period. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of the Site, or the entire Site. By accessing and using the Site, you represent and warrant that: your use of the Site does not violate any applicable law or regulation; and your use of the Site is for your own personal and non-business purposes only.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Site, including internet access. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access the Site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them in full.

You acknowledge that we have no obligation to monitor your access to or use of the Site for violations of this User Agreement, or to review or edit any content. However, we reserve the right to do so for the purpose of operating and improving the Site (including without limitation for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation and related purposes), to ensure your compliance with this User Agreement and to comply with applicable law or any order or requirement of a court, consent decree, administrative agency or other governmental body.

5. Registered Users

To use some parts of the Site, you may be required to register an account with us by providing certain information, including your name, password and email address. You agree to provide us with true and accurate information and to update it as necessary to keep it accurate. All user accounts are personal agreements between the user and the Congregation and as such are non-transferable. You must not use your account for or in connection with the impersonation of any person. If you provide us with false information, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account and your access to the Site.

You must treat your username and password you choose on registration as confidential, and you must not share them with anyone else. If you think that someone else might be using your account, you must let us know immediately using the contact information below. You should also immediately change your password. You must not use another user’s account to access the Site. We may terminate your account or block you from accessing the Site if you break these rules and/or the other rules contained in this User Agreement.

6. Use of the Site

By accessing and using the Site you hereby undertake and agree to do so in a legal and ethical manner. You hereby acknowledge and agree that you shall not use the Site to transmit material, or otherwise engage in any activity, that is defamatory, tortious, harmful, obscene, infringing, offensive, bullying, harassing, scandalous, hateful, inflammatory, threatening, unlawful, profane, pornographic, invasive of privacy or otherwise objectionable in relation to your use of the Site.

This includes without limitation, anything that facilitates illegal activity, depicts sexually explicit images, promotes violence, is discriminatory, is illegal or which could or does cause damage or injury to any person or property, could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable law, including, without limitation, any material that you are not entitled to post or transmit, or where such posting or transmission is in breach of any duty of confidentiality and/or third party intellectual property rights.

Except as expressly set out in this User Agreement or as permitted by applicable law, you hereby agree and undertake not to:

• Copy any of the Site except where such copying is incidental to normal use of the Site, or where it is necessary for the purpose of back-up or operational security;
• Rent, lease, sub-license, loan, translate, merge, adapt, vary or modify any of the Site or content therein;
• Make alterations to, or modifications of, the whole or any part of the Site, or permit the Site or any part of it to be combined with, or become incorporated in any other programs;
• Disassemble, decompile, reverse-engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Site or attempt to do any such thing except to the extent that such actions cannot be prohibited by applicable law;
• Provide or otherwise make available the Site in whole or in part (including object and source code), in any form to any person without our prior written consent;
• Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, an official, forum leader or facilitator, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
• Use the Site (or any part(s) of it) in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with this User Agreement, or act fraudulently or maliciously, for example, by hacking into or inserting malicious code, including viruses, or harmful data, into the Site (or into the websites linked to the Site) or any operating system;
• Infringe our intellectual property rights or those of any third party in relation to your access and/or use of the Site;
• Collect Site users’ information, or otherwise access the Site or our systems, using automated means (e.g. harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers, etc.) or attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Site;
• Use the Site for commercial purposes without our prior written consent;
• Send or otherwise post unauthorised commercial advertisements or other communications to users of the Site or any person (e.g. unsolicited commercial communications or spam);
• Manipulate any identifiers to disguise the origin of a message;
• Solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else;
• Disclose any other user’s personal information without her/his prior express agreement. This means that if you happen to know another user’s identity you must not disclose this to any other user or to any other third party;
• Facilitate or encourage any violations of this User Agreement (or any part thereof);
• Use the Site in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, impair or compromise the Site, our systems or security or interfere with other users or any other party’s computer systems or hack or gain unauthorised access to the Site or the Congregation Content (defined below) or data.

The Congregation does not and cannot review all communications posted to or created by users accessing the Site and is not in any manner responsible for the content of these communications and materials. You acknowledge and agree that, by the Congregation providing the ability to view and distribute user generated content on the Site, the Congregation is merely acting as a passive conduit for such distribution and is not undertaking any obligation or liability relating to any content or activities on the Site.

However, the Congregation reserves the right to block or remove users, communications or materials that it determines to be:

1. Harassing, abusive, defamatory or obscene;
2. Fraudulent, deceptive or misleading;
3. In violation of copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights;
4. In violation of any law or regulation; or
5. Offensive or otherwise unacceptable to the Congregation in its sole discretion.

Note that any personal data posted or transmitted by users will be treated by the Congregation in accordance with our Privacy Statement.

Where permitted by law, we reserve the right to disclose to our legal representatives, any Court and any regulatory and/or law enforcement authority the identity of any user who breaches this User Agreement (or any part thereof).

7. Use of Our Content

Except for “Your Content” (as defined below), the Congregation and our licensors, retain all right, title and interest in and to the information (in any form including without limitation text, graphical, video and audio, images, icons, applications, designs, software, scripts, programs, copyright, trademarks, trade names, logos) and other materials and services available on or through the Site, including its look and feel (collectively, “the Congregation Content“). You should note that the Congregation Content is protected by copyright, trademark, database rights, sui generis rights and other intellectual and industrial property laws (as the case may be), under national laws and international treaties.  Your access and/or use of any of the Site does not transfer to you or any other person any ownership or other rights in or to the Site, or its content, unless specified otherwise in this User Agreement.

You may not make alterations, copies, extractions, modifications or additions to the Congregation Content, or sell, copy, disseminate or licence it, or misuse the Congregation Content in any way. If you want to re-publish, extract, reproduce, disseminate or otherwise use any of the Congregation Content, you must contact us in advance and obtain our prior written permission except if otherwise expressly provided in this User Agreement. This is without prejudice to any rights you may have under applicable mandatory laws.

8. Your Content

We do not claim any proprietary rights to the text, files, images, photos, works of authorship, or any other materials which you upload, post, email or otherwise transmit to or via the Site (collectively, “Your Content“). You continue to retain all ownership and/or licence rights in Your Content. You are entirely responsible for Your Content. By transmitting Your Content on or through the Site, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to do so and that the publication of Your Content on the Site, and the Congregation’s use of Your Content in accordance with the licence mentioned below, does not violate any law or third-party rights.

By transmitting Your Content on or via the Site, you grant the Congregation a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide, irrevocable, transferable and sub-licensable licence to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, distribute and translate Your Content as we may, in our discretion, choose to do. You hereby irrevocably and unconditionally waive any (and warrant you have procured the waiver of any third party) moral rights (and any rights of the same or similar effect anywhere in the world existing now or in the future created) relating to Your Content in favour of the Congregation and its assignees, licensees and designees.

To the extent any of Your Content contains personal data we will use it in accordance with our Privacy Statement.

9. Communication at your own risk

For Registered Members, we may communicate with you regarding the Site by electronic communications using information you provided during the registration process. You agree that we may communicate with you by means of electronic communications regarding this User Agreement and any other matter relating to your use of the Site. Email and other methods of transmitting information over the internet are subject to interference or scrutiny by third parties and should be independently verified. We cannot ensure security and privacy of such communications and all risk in transmitting such communications lies with you.

10. Disclaimer

Use of the site is entirely at your own risk and you assume full responsibility and risk or loss resulting in whole or in part from your use and/or access to the site.  We shall not be liable to you or to anyone else for any loss, damage or distress caused in whole or in part by relying upon, using, or interpreting the content or other information obtained through the access and/or use of this site.  The site is provided ‘as-is’ and on an ‘as available’ basis without any representation or endorsement of any kind.  To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law we disclaim all warranties, conditions or other terms of any kind expressed or implied.  For the avoidance of doubt, we make no undertaking, representation or warranty:

• in connection with the completeness or accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any of the content made available on or through the site; and/or
• that the Site or the server(s) it is hosted on is free from defects, errors, viruses, bugs or other harmful elements.

Any reference to or description on the site of products, services or publications shall not be deemed an endorsement of such products, services or publication.  The Congregation does not provide legal, financial, medical or other professional or personal services.  Should legal, financial, medical or other professional, personal or expert advice or other assistance be sought, these services should be obtained from a qualified professional.

The Congregation makes no warranties regarding possible infringement or any national or foreign patent, trademark, trade name, copyright or other intellectual property rights and users shall have no claim against the Congregation or its affiliates or licensors in connection therewith.

Your use of the site may give you the opportunity to engage in communications and transactions of a commercial or personal nature with persons other than The Congregation.  All such communications and transactions are at your own risk.  The Congregation is not a party to any such communications and transactions and disclaims any and all liability regarding all such communications and transactions.  To the extent that you choose to partake in such communications and transactions, the Congregation makes no representations, warranties or conditions or any kind related thereto whether expressed or implied, and including without limitation implied warranties or merchantable quality or fitness for a particular purpose, all of which the Congregation hereby disclaims to the fullest extent permitted by law.

The exclusion of certain warranties and the limitation of certain liabilities are prohibited by legislation in some jurisdictions.  Such legislative limitations may apply to you.  The disclaimer, liability exclusion, liability limitation, and indemnity provisions in this User Agreement survive indefinitely after the termination of this User Agreement.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law the Congregation hereby expressly excludes all liability, loss or damage incurred by you, or any other person, arising out of access to, use of or inability to use the site (by you or any other person), whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or any other legal theory, for any of the following, even if foreseeable:

1. loss of income or revenue; loss of business; loss of profits or contracts; loss of data and loss of goodwill; and
2. special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.

Nothing in this User Agreement shall affect your statutory rights.

12. Indemnity

You agree to, and do hereby, indemnify, defend and hold harmless each of the Congregation and its subsidiaries and affiliates and their respective agents, directors, officers, employees, contractors, facilitators and suppliers (collectively “indemnified parties”) from and against any and all liabilities, expenses and costs including without limitation reasonable legal fees and expenses incurred by the indemnified parties in connection with any claim or demand arising out of, related to or connected with your use of the site, being a registered user, someone posing as you, or your breach of this User Agreement.  You hereby undertake and agree to promptly assist and co-operate as fully as reasonably required by any of the indemnified parties in the defence of any such claim or demand.  You further agree to, and hereby do, indemnify the indemnified parties from all suits, damages, costs and liabilities whatsoever arising from any of your content and from any transactions in which you engage that are not with the Congregation. 

13. Links to Third Party Websites

The Site may contain links to third party websites, but this does not mean that we endorse or authorise those websites, nor does it mean that we are affiliated with the third party website’s owners or sponsors. The Congregation is not responsible for the contents or availability of any website of services that is not owned or directly controlled by the Congregation and does not endorse and is not responsible in any way for any content, advertising, products, services or other materials made available on or through third party websites. Your access and use of third party websites is subject to the terms and conditions of use and other policies, such as privacy policies and cookie policies, contained within each of those websites. We may terminate a link to a third party website at any time without notice and without liability to you.

14. Consequences of Breaching this User Agreement

Any failure to comply with any of this User Agreement or any misrepresentation of any information furnished to the Congregation or its affiliates by you or anyone acting on your behalf may result in the immediate suspension or termination of your user account and access to the Site without notice or liability to you. This is without prejudice to any other rights or remedies we have under this User Agreement or under applicable law. 

15. Force Majeure

The Congregation shall not be responsible for delays and failures in performance where performance is impractical due to circumstances beyond its reasonable control including but not limited to strikes, labour difficulties, riot, fire, death or curtailment of the parties’ usual source of supply, or governmental decrees and orders. 

16. General Provisions

This User Agreement operates to the fullest extent permissible by applicable law. If any provision (or part thereof) of the User Agreement is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision (or part thereof) is deemed severable from the User Agreement and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions (or part thereof).

Nothing in the User Agreement shall be construed to create a partnership or agency relationship between you and us and neither party shall have the right or authority to incur any liability, debt or cost or enter into any contracts or other arrangements in the name of or on behalf of the other.

You may not assign or otherwise transfer any of your rights or obligations under this User Agreement without the prior written consent of the Congregation, and any attempted assignment or transfer without such consent will be void. The Congregation may assign, sub-contract or novate any of its rights and/or obligations under this User Agreement and you agree to execute promptly any and all documents necessary or desirable for that purpose.

If the Congregation fails to insist that you perform any of your obligations under the User Agreement, or if we do not enforce our rights against you, or if we delay in doing so, that will not mean that we have waived our rights against you and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you, we will only do so in writing, and that will not mean that we will automatically waive any later default by you.

This User Agreement and the documents incorporated by reference constitute the entire agreement between you and the Congregation with respect to your access and use of the Site and any purchases you make via the Site. 

17. Governing Law

Ireland is the place of performance in respect of this Site. This User Agreement and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it are, or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland, and you agree that the courts of Ireland have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine any actions or proceedings that may arise out of or in connection with the User Agreement. However, this does not prevent us from instituting proceedings outside of Ireland. 

18. Contacting Us

If you have any questions, requests or complaints regarding this User Agreement please contact us using the following information:

Web:                  http://www.sistersofmercy.ie/contact-us

Email:                mercy@csm.ie

Telephone:         01 4673737