The recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London prompts a writer in The Irish Times to ponder not the nature of Islam, as would seem natural given the stated motivations of the attackers, but to accuse modern Christianity of being an “exercise in cherry-picking”, one that leaves out the more difficult passages in the Bible....
A ‘Forum on the Role of Religion in Primary School Admissions’ was held in Croke Park on Monday. A notable feature was the strong presence of Church of Ireland representatives at the meeting, there to defend the rights of their community. The event was organised by Education Minister, Richard Bruton. It brought together parties that...
Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland, has presented the usual litany of discrimination allegedly suffered by atheists and religious minorities in Ireland in an article for The Irish Times this week. He calls a more secular state. But what kind of secular State? The kind he wants would have almost no place for religion in public...
Iona Institute Director, David Quinn, appeared on RTE’s Prime Time last week to debate Census figures showing a decline in the number of Irish people who consider themselves to be Catholic. He debated what this means with Una Mullally of The Irish Times. In particular they discussed whether faith schools should continue to received public...
David Quinn appeared on Claire Byrne Live on RTE on March 13, 2017, to discuss Church/State separation. In this short clip he says that public funding of Church schools exists in countries where Church and State are separated.
Iona Institute Director, David Quinn, appeared on RTE’s Claire Byrne Live on Monday night. In this short clip, he points out that public funding of Church schools exists in countries where Church and State are firmly separated and should continue in Ireland also. He instances the examples of Australia and the Netherlands. The item can...
Maria Steen of The Iona Institute was on RTE’s Claire Byrne Live last night to debate whether or not denominational schools should be allowed to select pupils on the basis of the religion of the school when there are too many applications for the number of available places at the school. The debate can be...
A briefing note from The Iona Institute sets out what child-care choices the public really want to make. Only a small minority (17pc) want to place young children in day-care, 49pc want to mind their young children at home, while 27pc want another family member to look after their children during the working day. Yet,...
The European Court of Human Rights has today issued a very important ruling which puts something of a brake on the worst kind of surrogacy. The case involved an Italian couple who used a surrogate mother in Russia to have a child to whom neither of them were biologically related. The Court has ruled that the...
On Tuesday, David Quinn appeared on three separate local radio stations defending the admissions policies of faith-based schools. This was in response to a speech given on Monday by the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, who promised to change those school’s preference for children of their own community. His interview with Tommy Marren of Mid-West...
