Speaking at the Glenties Summer School at the weekend, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was the aim of his Government “to create the environment where the innocence of children can develop naturally through their formative years.” If he is serious about this, then the number one thing his Government needs to do is promote and...
A new study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) indicates that children raised by cohabiting couples do no worse on average than children raised by married couples once socio-economic background is taken into account, and therefore there is no good reason on the part of the State to encourage marriage. To put it another...
W. Brad Wilcox, a US sociologist who researches in area of marriage, had a piece in The Washington Post last week, attacking the idea, which appears to be gaining ground, that marriage be sexually exclusive is passé. Wilcox points out that there are a range of problems with marital infidelity; out-of-wedlock births, increased risk of...
In a prominently featured book extract entitled ‘The Divorce Generation’ published in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, author Susan Gregory-Thomas discusses the impact of divorce on her generation, Generation X. Unfortunately, since it is part of a memoir, Gregory Thomas’s article provides a rather narrow account of the issue. Those belonging to Generation X (defined...
Ireland goes before the UN Human Rights Council in October to report on how well it is doing in conforming to the various UN human rights conventions and treaties the Irish State has signed. The Irish submission is now publicly available. It is very heavily biased towards a particular interpretation of human rights. For example,...
Ross Douthat in the New York Times has a useful piece on exactly why same-sex marriage damages the institution of marriage. His piece is a response to the argument that says that same-sex marriage will have no impact on the health of the institution. There are those who argue, Douthat points out, that same-sex marriage,...
Last week Charlie McConalogue of Fianna Fail tabled a Private Member’s Bill to allow the adoption of the children of married couples. He was supported in this by party colleague, John Browne. Browne said it a good thing overall that so few Irish children are available for adoption. To put it mildly, this is arguable....
Dr Tom Hickey has kicked off a lively and useful debate about our schooling system and the meaning of republicanism. In a blog last week, I took issue (among other things) with the phrase ‘child-citizen’ which Dr Hickey continually used in his article. In any event, Dr Hickey has responded in a blog of his...
One of the most difficult issues that has arisen in the context of the debate over the transfer of denominational primary schools to other patrons is whether the present owner and patrons of such schools should be financially compensated. The Church of Ireland has offered an imaginative solution to this problem. There is a school...
Our recent conference on women, home and work is still causing a reaction. One of our speakers, Jonas Himmelstrand, had an article in The Irish Times on Friday responding to Ursula Kilkelly and Dympna Devine who insisted that the ‘Nordic’ daycare model (meaning in practice the Swedish one) is what we need to copy here...
