Plunging marriage and birth rates show Ireland is now on the wrong course in very important ways, a new paper from The Iona Institute says. The paper examines social trends over the last few decades in respect of births, marriage and family overall. Outside of the Covid years, the country’s marriage rate is now at...
There is a marked revival of interest in religion among young people in Northern Ireland, a major new poll commissioned by The Iona Institute has found. This is a clear reversal of the previous continual decline by age. The youngest age group polled, that is, the 18-24-year-olds, are more likely to have a ‘very positive’...
A major new poll commissioned by The Iona Institute reveals the public are split in their attitudes towards the Catholic Church. The poll was conducted by Amarach Research. Among the findings of the poll is that the public are very evenly divided in their attitudes towards priests and nuns with almost exactly a third in...
The ongoing decline in religious practice will deepen our coming demographic crisis because it will almost certainly mean that fewer people marry and have children, a new paper from The Iona Institute says. This will accelerate population ageing, even allowing for high immigration. The paper, called ‘Religion, Marriage and Fertility: Shall the Religious Inherit Ireland?’ shows that...
A NEW paper from The Iona Institute shows that last year a quarter of all weddings that took place in Ireland were broadly ‘New Age’ in character, while Christian ceremonies accounted for not much more than a third of the total. The paper, by columnist Breda O’Brien, says that the Churches must respond to this...
June 2024 Introduction: We have two concerns about the draft curriculum for primary schools that we would briefly like to draw attention to in our submission. One is the treatment of religion and spirituality in the draft and the other is the increase in political content in the draft. We believe the current curriculum...
An Oireachtas committee has recommended euthanasia for those judged to be within six to 12 months of death. If we go down this path, we can fully expect there to be pressure to allow it on far more expansive grounds. We know this because pro-euthanasia advocates who appeared before the committee were quite clear on...
In our new briefing note, we examine what a selection of leading voices in the field of sex education want teenagers in our schools to be taught about consent, pornography and gender identity. A great deal of what they want is already in the new Social Personal and Health (SPHE) curriculum for Junior Cycle pupils (12-15 year-olds),...
The former Master of the Rotunda, Dr Fergal Malone, recently revealed that over 90pc of patients at the hospital opt for abortion once they are told the baby they are expecting has Down Syndrome. A new paper from the Iona Institute says this shows Ireland has now embraced eugenics, a philosophy which distinguishes between those considered...
Response to the ‘Background Paper and Brief for the redevelopment of Senior Cycle SPHE’ Submission from The Iona Institute to the NCCA December 6, 2022 Introduction: We would like to use this submission to draw attention to three particular areas we believe it is absolutely essential to properly consult parents about ahead of...
