Despite the wish of some atheists, the religious instinct of human beings is basically ineradicable. When it doesn’t find a direct religious outlet, it will find other outlets, such as politics. By ‘the religious instinct’ I mean the wish to find meaning and purpose in life, something bigger than ourselves, transcendence, a belief in a...
The single best protector against abortion appears to be marriage. A married woman is only a fifth as likely to have an abortion as a woman who is not married. This difference is stark and is worth examining. We know that in the UK, for example, about one every five pregnancies ends in abortion, but...
The forthcoming legislation on assisted human reproduction is set to build on the extremely radical approach to family relationships put in place by the Children and Family Relationships Act from 2015, a law that greatly demotes the importance of the biological ties between parents and children. In an article published in the current issue of the...
Is the average family more fairly taxed now than they were in 1974? Taxation and the Family: Restoring Balance and Fairness, the Iona Institute’s new paper, analyses tax bands, credits and benefit payments and shows definitively that the answer is no. You can read the paper here.
As women’s economic prospects have risen in recent decades, and that of many men, especially many working class men have declined, so have the odds of some people ever getting married. To put it bluntly; a man with good earning prospects has a better chance of getting married than a man with poor earning prospects....
What makes marriage work? A new study from the University of Exeter has looked at exactly this and recommended the findings be taught in schools. After all, entering a marriage is one of the most important decisions we can make in life, so we ought to do our best to get it right and we...
In 2013, 2.1 million marriages and 943,000 divorces took place in the European Union. This is the equivalent of 4.1 marriages and 1.9 divorces for every 1,000 persons. How does Ireland compare with the rest of Europe? In the same year, the crude marriage rate (number of marriage per 1,000 persons per annum) for Ireland...
We often hear that Ireland has a low divorce rate compared to the rest of Europe and particularly to the UK. This is correct, but we can’t afford to be complacent because for every four couples who marry in Ireland each year, roughly one couple go their separate ways. That is probably higher than many...
The Central Statistics Office invited submissions on the content of the questionnaire for the 2021 census during a public consultation process. Prof. Stephen Bullivant, on behalf of the Iona Institute, made a submission on the question about religion. The document can be found here. Updates on the consultation process can be found here.
A few months ago, The Iona Institute submitted a document to the Oireachtas Committee on Health regarding the General Scheme of a Bill to regulate Artificial Human Reproduction (AHR). It is co-written by Dr Joanna Rose, who is herself donor-conceived. Two weeks ago, The Irish Times reported our submission. The report said our submission “claims”...
