There is no specific time frame for the Government to provide legislation for legal recognition of transsexuals, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore (pictured) said at the weekend. Speaking at the closing of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (ILGA) European conference in Dublin on Sunday, he said the Government was committed to developing “gender recognition”...
The Department of Education’s plan to survey parents online to determine whether they want their local Catholic school to be run by a different patron body has been criticised by the Catholic Church’s leading spokesperson on schools. Chairperson of the Irish Catholic Schools Partnership Fr Michael Drumm (pictured) has said that an online survey...
People who wait until their 20s before having sex are more likely to enjoy a happy, satisfying relationship in later life than those who have sex in their teens, a major new study has found. Research conducted by the University of Texas also found those who abstain until at least 20 years old were more...
Feminism is not popular among modern women, according to a new survey. Just one in seven women in a poll now describe themselves as a feminist, with most saying the traditional respect of motherhood has been undermined, the Daily Telegraph reports. The survey of members of Netmums, Britain’s largest women’s website, revealed almost a third...
Legislation preventing same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples from adopting has been deemed unlawful by the High Court of Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Treacy said the ban discriminated against all unmarried couples, gay or straight, and was against the best interests of children. The Northern Ireland Health Minister, Edwin Poots is to challenge the ruling...
The number of Catholics in the country is at its highest level since independence, but those who define themselves as having no religion are the fastest growing group, according to Census figures published yesterday by the CSO. Catholics in the country total 3.8 million, the highest since 1922, but their share of the population, while...
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that if we pass the children’s right amendment we will be turning our back on a time when the State “kowtowed to Churches in respect of the care of children, to the detriment of children”. He was speaking yesterday at the launch of Labour’s campaign in favour of the amendment....
The UK Government must keep its promise to introduce tax breaks for married couples by 2015, the Work and Pension Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith has demanded. Plans to introduce such a tax break are strongly opposed by Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. Proponents say it will signal the importance of marriage for society and for...
The constitutional amendment will ensure all children in Ireland are treated equally under law, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, has said. Writing in The Irish Times today she says the amendment will make it easier to adopt the children of married parents. She says: “At present the laws relating to adoption...
A record one in five American now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated and for the first time less than half the population is Protestant according to a major new poll. However, more than half of the unaffiliated describe themselves as either ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ and 21 percent pray every day. The poll, by the Pew...
