Family stability should be recognised as a core component of any child poverty strategy, according to a new report from the UK Centre for Social Justice. The reason? Stable relationships provide a platform for economic progress. Governments usually approach child poverty as a problem of insufficient income, the report by Dr Harry Benson argues. The...
Tomorrow marks the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence which includes the famous words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But are these “truths”...
The latest Rotunda Hospital annual report contains a deeply troubling finding: three-quarters of babies found to have Down Syndrome via a prenatal test are aborted. This is obviously modern-day eugenics. The report shows that in 2024, the hospital’s Fetal Medicine Department diagnosed 45 unborn babies with Trisomy 21, better known as Down Syndrome, and 32...
When issues like abortion or euthanasia are debated, opponents issue warnings about the ‘slippery slope’ and predict that the ‘floodgates will open’. By this they mean that after either one is introduced, the grounds for it will expand, and the numbers availing of it will increase. Proponents deny either of these things will happen. For...
In many parts of the world today, people are having few children than they want. A new report from Canada confirms this phenomenon. A report from The Iona Institute last week predicts that one in four members of Gen Z will never have a child. An Amarach poll we commissioned finds that average person still...
One in four members of ‘Gen Z’ look set never to have children, a new paper from the Iona Institute forecasts. The paper is called ‘Choice or Circumstance? Rising Childlessness in Ireland’. The document examines trends in childlessness by generation starting with women born in 1955 (the ‘baby boomers’). It finds that only 13.5pc of...
Today, Pope Leo XIV has issued his first encyclical. Titled Magnifica Humanitas, it offers a broad sweep of Catholic social teaching, and in light of that, what the Catholic Church’s response to Artificial Intelligence should be. Three years ago, The Iona Institute hosted a talk by philosopher, Dr Gerard Casey on a very similar topic....
The Dáil last week rejected an attempt to make Ireland’s abortion legislation even more permissive than it already is. The failed Bill went far beyond simply removing the three-day waiting period before an abortion, which is the big ask of pro-choice organisations. It also sought to decriminalise doctors acting outside the law and substantially widen the...
A new curriculum for Leaving Certificate history is currently under development by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and the signs are that the course will have a strong, and left-leaning ideological bias. The draft curriculum is broken into four strands. The first one seems straightforward enough. It looks at how history is...
Earlier this week we learnt that marriage rates in Ireland have hit a new record low. This trend is being repeated in many countries all over the world. Pope Leo XIV has now called a summit meeting on the global crisis in marriage. It will take place in Rome in October. The presidents of all...
