Upcoming ‘hate crime’ legislation could easily land the Church in trouble, warns a new article in The Catholic Herald. Last week, the Cabinet approved the ‘Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, 2022’, and while it is uncertain exactly what its effects will be, it is not impossible to imagine a...
One of the biggest articles of faith of modern, liberal societies is that the sexual freedoms now available to us have made people happier and more fulfilled. An accompanying belief is that we needed to slay the ‘dragon’ of religious sexual repression in order to win our freedoms. But now a major new study has...
The National Maternity Hospital is advertising for consultant obstetricians who, as part of their job description, must perform abortions. This is the first ad to ever appear in this country that has as a job requirement the deliberate ending of a human life. Truly a terrible moral boundary has been crossed. But the ad tells...
by David Quinn I wonder what the main campaigners against the blasphemy provision of our Constitution think of a new ruling by the European Court of Human Rights which found that is it was permissible for Austria to prosecute someone for ‘disparaging religious doctrine’, in this case by insulting the Prophet Mohammed? What does Justice...
The Government is shaping up to radically overhaul the way Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) is taught in schools. To this end, it is placing considerable weight on a new survey conducted by the Smart Consent research team at NUI Galway on sexual harassment and consent. It was widely reported by the media, but does it...
It might seem a silly question to ask those who constantly call for scientific, objective, evidence-based, school-based sex education programmes, but where is the “evidence” that such programmes actually work? By ‘work’ we mean do they reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy and STIs? As the answer is not immediately self-evident, researchers have poured time,...
On the morning of the count, with the result already known, David Quinn gave his immediate reaction to Marian Finucane on RTE Radio 1. The following Monday, he appeared on the Clare Byrne Live show on RTE 1 to argue that the pro-life side must be as committed in the long term to achieving the...
Ivan Yates hosted an 8th Referendum debate featuring Declan Ganley, Dr Andrew O’Regan GP, and barrister, Maria Steen, of the Iona Institute on the No side; and, on the Repeal side, Timmy Dooley, TD for Fianna Fail, Grainne Gilmore of Lawyers4Yes, and Obstetrician, Mary Higgins. The debate took place in Galway on May 16th 2018...
The big reveal this week in abortion politics is not that we would finally have a referendum to repeal the Eighth amendment, but rather that another provision would replace it. Yet, by the end of the week, we are no closer to knowing exactly what that text might be or what it is meant to...
The hopes of stay-at-home parents to get the support and recognition they deserve were again dashed as new Fine Gael childcare proposals aim to help working parents who employ childminders, but not parents who give up work to mind their own children themselves. This is despite opinion polls showing a big majority of voters believes...
