The Iona Institute, among other pro-marriage groups, likes to use a number of studies to buttress its case that marriage should be given special status. It is obvious that marriage should not have special status unless there is something special about it. What is that something? The answer is the benefits it passes on to...
The Government is set to recognise the altered birth certs of people who have had their genders ‘reassigned’ overseas, but they are not yet changing the birth certs of people who have had their gender reassigned in Ireland. In addition, it will allow that person to marry a person of the ‘opposite’ sex. In a...
Labour’s Eoin Holmes has done spectacularly badly in the Meath East by-election. Holmes ran in part on a social issues agenda. He made lots of noise about Labour’s stance on abortion and same-sex marriage, and had Ivana Bacik (pictured) as a prominent part of his campaign. It did him no good whatsoever. Clearly voters in...
Last Sunday saw another mass protest against same-sex marriage in Paris. This video gives a good feel of the colour, atmosphere and sheer joie de vivre of the overall march. It shows that the event was well organised, positive in tone and was a representative cross section of French society, with young and old alike...
Why do economists strongly recommend schemes promoting higher levels of college education, but almost never promote schemes to incentivise marriage? After all, both are beneficial. It’s an interesting question, posed by writer Megan McArdle in this blog. She points out that both third level education and marriage are linked to higher earning power and...
More extravagant claims are being made for the benefits of child-care. For example, at a recent conference organised by pro-child care organisation, Start Strong, Fergus Finlay of Bernardos said Sweden’s comprehensive child-care system was responsible for its strong economy. Writing in The Irish Independent today, we have economist Stephen Kinsella citing an unnamed OECD report...
The website of the Constitutional Convention lists all the submissions made to date on the subject of same-sex marriage. Most of these, unfortunately, reflect only one side of the argument, that is the pro-same-sex marriage side. One of the more interesting submissions, however, is from a gay man opposed to same-sex marriage. As he...
The headline to the story in The Irish Times yesterday read, ‘Only 49pc teach religion willingly in schools’. What did this headline invite us to believe? It invited us to believe that the rest do so unwillingly. Nothing could be further from the truth. The INTO survey on which the report is based in fact...
Reports that the Government could back a Bill which would deny religious institutions the right not to hire people who could damage their ethos and to take “reasonable” action against those who do is very worrying for those of us who value religious freedom. The legislation, which is being proposed by a group of Labour...
Maria Steen of the Iona Institute discussed the issue of surrogacy on RTE’s Prime Time with David Walsh of the Sims Fertility Clinic on Tuesday in the wake of the High Court’s decision to recognise the biological parents of twins born to a surrogate mother as the legal parents. You can watch the discussion here....
