The new Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) has just issued a very good and timely position paper called ‘Catholic schools in the Republic of Ireland’. It is timely because of the forum on school patronage established by Ruairi Quinn. Minister Quinn caused quite a stir last month when he said he would like to see around...

Richard Waghorne (pictured), writing in today’s Irish Daily Mail, explains that, although he is himself gay, he doesn’t believe that same-sex marriage is a good idea. His reason for this is simple: Marriage receives special status because the protection it gives to children, not because of the status it gives to adults: “The support and status...

One of the big accusations aimed at denominational schools is that they are ‘exclusive’ whereas their secular counterparts are ‘inclusive’. However, this is a caricature. Denominational schools obviously have a denominational ethos, and they are there to serve their own religious community first and foremost. But this does not on its own mean children from...

Yesterday’s statement by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn that he is looking to transfer the patronage of 50 per cent of Irish primary schools from the Church to some other patronage body appears to have caused some concern to members of the hierarchy. It is not the fact of some schools being given up that...

A new study argues that religion is headed for extinction in nine countries, including Ireland , if present trends continue. That’s a very big ‘if’, of course. I suppose if religious affiliation continues to drop by one or two percent a year into the future eventually you get down to zero. However, if religion eventually...

Last week’s momentous ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the Italy v Lautsi case, which found in favour of Italy’s right to continue to place crucifixes in its State classrooms turned partly on the Court’s finding that Council of Europe member states have a “wide margin of appreciation”...

In Ireland over the last few years hospitals and other public places have been removing Christian symbols from view in the name of ‘not causing offence’. This has even extended to not displaying cribs at Christmas. Cromwell would have been proud of these secular Cromwellians. On Friday, the European Court of Justice momentously overturned a...

The latest unemployment figures released this week by the CSO confirm that men are much more likely to be unemployed than women and hence the term some people have coined for this recession, namely the ‘mancession’. Figures from the National Household Survey for the fourth quarter of last year show that whereas the female unemployment...

Last week on the BBC’s Question Time, a member of the audience asked whether it was right for the State to prevent a Christian couple fostering children because they believe in traditional sexual morality. The question was prompted by a High Court ruling which held that Eunice and Owen Johns couldn’t foster children under equality...

In debates about conscience rights something very strange has happened. The left, which used to champion conscience rights, is now  frequently opposed to such rights. In this article, American scholar Robert Vischer wonders why this has happened. He takes as his starting point the decision by President Obama to curtail the conscience rights afforded to...