Young children whose parents get divorced are not only more likely to suffer from anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem and sadness, they experience long-lasting setbacks in interpersonal skills and math test scores, according to new US research. Importantly, the study says that most of the negative effects take place after the divorce instead of during the...
Two Irish academics have dismissed criticism of Sweden’s daycare system aired at an Iona Institute conference last month. Writing in today’s Irish Times, UCC law lecturer Ursula Kilkelly and education lecturer Dympna Devine said that the Nordic model was “among the best internationally on all the indicators of children’s wellbeing”. They were responding to comments made in...
European judges have ordered British ministers to make a formal statement on whether the UK Government believes Christians’ rights have been infringed by decisions in the British courts, which have repeatedly dismissed their right to dress and act according to their beliefs. The move will force the British Government to say whether it backs the...
A UK Government-commissioned inquiry into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood has recommended that music videos should have age ratings to protect children from sexual images. The review into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, published yesterday, was commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron. It was carried out by Reg Bailey, the head of...
Leading atheist Professor Richard Dawkins has said that the Catholic Church is “an evil institution . . . by far the worst where the churches are concerned”. In an interview with the Irish Times, Professor Dawkins said that he hoped the churches would “wither away”, and he “rejoiced” at the growth of secularism in Ireland...
Labour Party Senator Ivana Bacik has said that she would approve of an Irish ban on ‘male genital mutilation’ an apparent reference to male circumcision which is carried out on Muslims and Jewish children and has been performed on millions of other babies for medical reasons. She issued the call at the World Atheist Convention...
The UK schools minister has told Parliament that parents should retain the right to take their children out of sex education classes if they wish to. Nick Gibb was speaking to a House of Lords Select Committee about the Government’s internal review of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), which includes elements of sex...
Religious freedom and freedom of conscience is under growing pressure, both in Ireland and around Europe, a conference in the Pontifical Irish College in Rome heard yesterday. Iona Institute director, David Quinn told the conference, which was attended by President Mary McAleese, that the warnings of Pope Benedict about aggressive secularism needed to be heard....
The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, has denied that he has a secular agenda. In a pre-recorded interview on the Coleman at Large programme on Newstalk, the Minister said he wanted to “correct” suggestions by the presenter Marc Coleman, that the Labour Party had such an agenda. “[W]e do not have a secular agenda. We...
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is widely regarded as displaying an anti-Christian attitude in its programming, according to the Corporation’s own research. Viewers told a survey commissioned by the BBC that the Corporation uses “derogatory stereotypes” of Christians which portray them as “weak” and “bigoted”. The BBC report, carried out as part of the corporation’s...
