The Iona Blog

It’s not just the children of married parents who aren’t placed for adoption, Minister

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald was on Today with Pat Kenny this morning (Monday) talking about the forthcoming children right’s referendum. She said that one reason we need the referendum is because it is so hard to adopt the children of married parents who therefore languish in the legal limbo of the foster care system...

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Surrogacy is very unlikely to be upheld by international law

Some months ago, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed a bill which would have allowed virtually unlimited surrogacy in his state. Surrogacy is banned in one European country after another. Here, Justice Minister Alan Shatter appears to be contemplating one of the most liberal surrogacy regimes in the world. Surrogacy is, of course, a process...

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The conflict between gender ideology and science exposed again

We hear a lot about the conflict between science and religion. However, as I’ve argued before, the real conflict  these days is between science and various forms of political correctness, including feminism. This conflict is starkly highlighted in this documentary. It was shown a couple of years ago on Norwegian State television and is presented...

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How an unimaginative penal system damages families

This blog has recently commented on the fact that there is an increasing marriage gap between the middle class and those from poorer areas. In the article concerned, Eve Tushnet, an American crisis-pregnancy counsellor, argued that the US’s ineffective and harmful penal policy is a major contributor to the breakdown of families from lower socio-economic...

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Church and State and Pat Rabbitte

Pat Rabbitte got himself into a bit of hot water when he told RTE last weekend that he thought it would be a regressive step if the Church started ‘dictating’ to politicians again. Seeing as he had been ask to comment on Cardinal Sean Brady’s remark on the same programme that the Church might lobby...

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Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again

There is a growing marriage gap between the middle class and many of those who live in our poorest areas. Basically, the middle class still aspire to marry and get married. In the poorest areas the aspiration to marry is still there – to an extent – but a growing number of people think it’s...

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What’s that beam sticking out of your eye Mr Hefner?

Ok, attacking Hugh Hefner for saying it is traditionalists, and not the likes of him, who reduce the meaning of sex is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but let’s do it anyway. The website Politico reports that in the current issue of Playboy Hefner editorialises against traditionalists who are seeking, he reckons,...

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The latest cause of relationship conflict; video games!

We know that severe financial difficulties, terrible communication and infidelity can lead to marital breakdown, but video games? According to this study, conflict over video games, and media generally, can play a significant role in relationship conflict. There is even a website, www.gamerwidow.com, full of stories of those who struggle with the addiction of their...

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Could children have more than two legal parents in the near future?

There are tentative moves in Ireland to change the law so that more than two people can be recognised as the legal parents of a child. The Law Reform Commission, for example, has made a recommendation to this effect. There are similar moves in the US to break ‘the rule of two’. The ‘rule of...

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Big Brother now looking to censor how we pray

Freedom of religion used to be understood by one and all as the freedom to worship privately, and the freedom, within reason, to manifest that faith in the public square. It was taken for granted that one’s work should not compromise one’s deeply held religious convictions. In recent times, this notion of religious freedom has...

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