The Civil Partnership Act is now in existence for over a year. In his column in last Friday’s Irish Times John Waters drew attention to an aspect of this law that was little noticed at the time, namely the provisions that force many of the legal responsibilities of marriage on cohabiting couples unless they opt...
On Wednesday the US Supreme Court issued its most important religious freedom ruling in years. Religious freedom is under increasing pressure in the US, Ireland and elsewhere, and the question was whether the court in this particular case would rule in favour of religious freedom or against it. It ruled in favour. Under consideration was...
A few months back British Prime Minister David Cameron declared himself in favour of same-sex marriage because encouraging commitment is a conservative thing to do in his view. Around the time he said that, Douglas Murray writing in The Spectator agreed. But his article was most noteworthy for what it left out. The article has...
A court in Florida has ruled that the birth mother and the genetic mother of a child are both the parents of that child, legally speaking. The court described the case as “unique” saying that it had “never before considered a case quite like it”. But this is happens when you deliberately ‘split’ motherhood. Reproductive...
Shortly before Christmas, The Irish Times published an article that took a crack at yours truly over my support for the special status of marriage. But nowhere the article does its author, Anthea McTiernan, consider the evidence in favour of the family based on marriage, nor does she come up with a working definition of...
New figures show that more than one in five abortions in the UK (22.1 percent) is carried out on girls under the age of 20. Dominique Jackson, writing in The Daily Mail, reckons the answer to this is more sex ed. But her conclusion is flatly contradicted by figures she quotes in her own article....
The UK’s deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has attacked in rather odd terms proposals to give a modest tax break to married couples. In a speech a few days ago he said: “We should not take a particular version of the family institution, such as the 1950s model of suit-wearing, breadwinning...
The findings of the recent Pew survey showing the low level of marriage in the US aren’t really all that surprising to those who are familiar with the issue. Just over half (51pc) of US adults are now married says Pew, based on US census data. Only last year, the Institute for American Values released...
Two major reports on the family have been issued in the last few days, one on attitudes to the family in Ireland, one on family structure in Ireland. The first shows that there is a lot of wishful thinking going on about the changes to family life that are taking place, the other confirms that...
Earlier this year, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik and her colleague in the Dáil, Labour TD Aodhan O Riordán proposed ending the prayers said in the Oireachtas before each session, supposedly to promote greater “pluralism”. Both Senator Bacik and Mr O’Riordán placed this issue on the agenda of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges (CPP) in...
