How did the US election go from a Catholic point of view, not just the general election, but the various ballots as well? In the three states where same-sex marriage was on the ballot, Maine, Maryland and Washington, it triumphed, for the first time ever. There was a ballot in Massachusetts in favour of ‘assisted...

Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland had an article in The Irish Times on Friday called ‘Myths about atheism obscure its secular values’. It was a highly sanitised presentation of atheism, what we might call ‘butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth’ atheism. Reading Michael, it is as though atheism has no history, that it emerged new...

Last month, the youngest ever man to have a ‘gender reassignment’ operation in the UK decided he wanted the procedure reversed.  The 18-year-old, who was formerly known as Brad Cooper, and now known as Ria, had been having hormone injections to make him look like a woman. Now Brad/Ria says the hormone treatment has led...

Victoria White had a very interesting piece in The Evening Herald on Monday explaining why she voted against the children’s rights referendum even though she had fully intended voting in favour. In the end she voted against it because of her direct experience of social workers. She explained in the Herald that her son was...

During the boom efforts were made to encourage as many women to work as possible. The tax laws designed to achieve this are still in place and now, because of the recession, are more wasteful and inappropriate than ever. I am writing about tax individualisation and how it favours dual income families over one-income families....

Tomorrow the country goes to the polls to vote on the proposed amendment to the Constitution. My personal opinion is that the stakes are not as high as either side is claiming. I believe the potential harm or good that Article 42A can do is limited. I’m relieved the wording is not the same as...

There has been plenty of gloating on the part of some Barack Obama  supporters after his narrow win on Tuesday, and lots of self-flagellation and, frankly, panicking among Republican supporters. It calls to mind Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army fame (Clive Dunne (pictured) who played him died at age 92 yesterday. RIP) Some people are...

There is a marriage gap in US politics. Married women are more likely to vote Republican and single women are more likely to vote Democrat. Eleanor Clift, a Democrat supporter, draws attention to this fact in an article in The Daily Beast, but ironically in a manner which shows life has gone dramatically backwards for...

Here is the key question concerning the children’s rights referendum; if passed will it make it too easy for the State to decide what is in a child’s ‘best interests’ and thereby allow the State to override parents in wide-ranging circumstances? A seminar in Trinity College Dublin last night considered this very thing. The consensus...

We’re accustomed to hearing Sweden is Nirvana for women, especially working women. In part this is because it has heavily subsidised, universal day-care. However, new data shows that Swedish mothers are more likely than their counterparts in other developed countries to claim disability benefits. So things are not as rosy for Swedish women as they...