THE National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has recently published its draft programme for the Junior Certificate Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, which includes Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). We have major concerns about what it proposes regarding pornography, consent and gender identity. Specifically, we ask if the programme means schools will...
A moral transformation, rather than social policies, will stop the de-population bomb claims Dr Nicholas Eberstadt, an expert in demography, in a new interview called the ‘De-Population Bomb’. For years we have been warned of the dangers of an increasing world population (the so-called ‘population bomb’), but what happens when it shrinks, instead? This is already...
Press Release from the Iona Institute Budget’s day-care provisions almost totally overlook stay-at-home parents Budget also worsens effects of tax individualisation September 28, 2022 – Budget 2023 is unfair and discriminatory towards all parents who do not use day-care. By allocating 121 millions in public funds towards a big reduction in day-care fees, the Government...
This Dail is back in session. What are some of the issues we should be looking out for in the autumn term? One is the promised “hate crimes” bill which may affect freedom of religious expression. Another, not totally unrelated, is the proposal to ban pro-lifers from holding even silent vigils outside facilities where abortions...
When we see reports about anti-social behaviour and criminality – for example, the ramming of a garda car in Dublin this week – no-one ever explores whether there might be a link with family breakdown. It would be surprising if this was not sometimes the case. Plenty of studies overseas have established such a link,...
Almost half of children born in the UK in 2000 did not grow up with both of their biological parents throughout their childhood, according to a new report by the Children’s Commissioner, Rachel de Souza. This is because so many are born to lone parents, or else see their parents (married or cohabiting) separate. This...
WHAT will Catholic and other faith-based schools be allowed to teach in the future? This is the crucial question theologian and chairman of The Iona Institute, Dr John Murray, asks in our new paper, ‘Will Modern Ireland Tolerate Catholic Schools?’ As Ireland continues to change and becomes more multi-cultural, will the pressure increase on faith-based schools...
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...
A new report from an organisation in America attacks the Iona Institute in a highly defamatory manner, but the attack is so bad that it has been recognised as such by fair-minded liberals who have criticised the report in public and defended us. The document was published by a Washington DC-based outfit called the ‘Global Project...
Politics has become a substitute for religion and ‘social justice warriors’ are today’s Puritans, a new BBC documentary claims. Helen Lewis, who was raised Catholic but is now an atheist, has produced a new documentary for BBC Radio 4 in which she explores the thesis that contemporary social justice movements have the same characteristics that...
