A court in Northern Ireland has ruled in favour of unmarried heterosexual couples and same-sex couples being able to adopt children. I was asked by the Breakfast Show on Newstalk about the ruling. Labour TD, Anne Ferris was also on the show. I explained that I believe there are certain circumstances in which a same-sex couple...
The number of people in Western countries, including Ireland, who say they belong to no religion is on the increase. Census 2011 showed that almost six percent of Irish people say they belong to no religion, while a new poll in the US puts the figure at one in five. But can Richard Dawkins (pictured)...
New figures from the CSO show that one household type, and one only, has suffered an overall loss in gross income in the years between 2005 and 2010, and that was households consisting of mothers and fathers with one to three children. Every other household type saw a rise in gross income, despite the recession....
One of the best philosophers working in Canada today is Margaret Somerville. She has devoted a lot of her energies to examining the ethics of assisted human reproduction and as a natural extension of this has been examining the issue of same-sex marriage, which she opposes. Why does it make sense to extend your ethical...
Last Friday, Professor John Haldane, during his talk to the Iona Institute, stated that sexual relations in modern societies are now “governed by two principles; the principle of sexual attraction and the principle of sentiment”. He said: “The argument that has evolved from that is very simple. It’s just this: that sexual attraction and love...
During the debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly this week over same-sex marriage, it was suggested that legalising gay marriage could threaten the freedom of Catholic schools to teach the traditional view of marriage. However, Conall McDevitt of the SDLP scoffed at this idea. He asked “Are Catholic schools teaching children about divorce?” In other...
The Dáil debate on the Government’s children’s rights referendum has, sadly, generated precious little light. It was, instead, full of clichés. Instead of a nuanced discussion of the finer points of the wording itself, the debate (and that word is used very loosely in this context) rehashed a series of unfortunate misapprehensions about what the...
In his weekly column in The Irish Times Vincent Browne complains that the proposed children’s rights amendment (CRA) doesn’t go far enough. For example, he maintains that even if passed it will still be too difficult to adopt children in foster care because it will still give too many rights to the natural parents. He...
We’re all familiar with the fact that people are waiting longer and longer to get married, and that cohabitation is more and more common among young people. However, this doesn’t mean most young people no longer want to get married, even though a growing number don’t. According to a new paper by the Institute of...
On Tuesday, RTE aired a documentary in which a gay man examined his options as to how to become a father. The programme, Gay Daddy, followed TV presenter Darren Kennedy as he examined the possible routes by which he could become a father. But it is fair to say that it did not really examine...
