How did same-sex marriage become such a major issue so quickly? Only a decade ago, almost no-one thought it was an important topic. Now, to hear certain people tell it, it is a civil right as vital as the right to free speech or the right to vote. How did this happen? Brendan O’Neill (pictured),...
Representatives from The Iona Institute, or speakers at our events, have featured on a number of high profile radio and TV shows in the last few weeks to discuss issues ranging from surrogate motherhood, to the gender pay gap to anti-Catholicism. Here is a selection of them. Frontline: David Quinn, Ivan Bacik, Diarmuid Ferriter and...
Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly addressed the annual Accord conference in Belfast last weekend. O’Reilly, one of Ireland’s best known journalists in a previous life is probably best described as a conflicted liberal. She has supported most of the liberal causes down the years, but she’s smart enough to know that the liberal reforms have a downside...
New figures from the European Commission show that the gender pay gap in Ireland is 17 percent. This is in line with the EU average. Yesterday on Morning Ireland Orla O’Connor of the National Women’s Council said one of the major factors contributing to this is a lack of affordable daycare in Ireland. However, proof...
Two Catholic midwives in Scotland have been told by a court that they must supervise and support staff in the labour ward of their hospital who perform abortions irrespective of their religious convictions. As reported by Catholic News Agency, Scotland’s highest civil court ruled that the women’s religious liberties were not being infringed because “the...
The finding of an ESRI study that most cohabiting couples get married shortly after they have their first child confirms what we in the Iona Institute have repeated many times: marriage is mainly about children and even today most people believe this as the actions of cohabiting couples with children testify. The study showed that,...
The guidelines published earlier this week by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter (pictured) on surrogacy utterly failed to flag the fact that the whole area is an ethical minefield. Surrogacy is problematic, involving as it does gestating one woman’s baby in another woman’s womb. There are some very serious concerns connected with it, but Minister...
Last weekend The Irish Times ran an editorial which essentially denied the existence of militant secularism and criticised people like UK Cabinet Minister, Baroness Warsi who say it is trying to push religion to the margins of society. The editorial was fantastical in the extreme, a complete and total denial of reality. In The Irish...
The head of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Philips, has compared Christians who want to protect their conscience rights with Muslims who want to impose Sharia law This is gravely offensive to British Christians, and borderline disgraceful, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the Christians in question are merely trying to reach...
A leader in The Irish Times last Saturday took to task those, including British Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi, who are concerned about the growth of a militant secularism that seeks to push religion to the margins of society. The Irish Times believes there is nothing to worry about, that such concerns are grossly exaggerated. But...
