A new poll in The Irish Independent today shows a clear majority of the public are in favour of same-sex marriage. Sixty-one percent say they back ‘State recognition of same-sex marriages’, with 27 percent opposed. However, this support is likely to be very soft and would change rapidly in a referendum campaign. For the last...
The other day Eamon Gilmore was asked point-blank by a voter whether Ireland is ready for an atheist Taoiseach. His answer, in summary, was that religion is a private matter. Later in the day, Pat Rabbitte said it isn’t a politician’s religion that matters so much as his or her values. I agree. But the...
The Guardian website is the not the first place you would expect to see an acknowledgement of the uniqueness of traditional marriage. In fact, it’s probably one of the last places you’d look. But this blog by Guardian political writer Michael White makes exactly that point. To be sure, there are a lot of contentious...
Incredibly, and without any debate whatever, a new brand of the Morning-After-Pill, or ‘Emergency Birth Control’, has been made available in Irish pharmacies without prescription. The ordinary, everyday contraceptive Pill is available only on prescription and cannot be given to minors without parental permission or consent. How this can be squared with making the MAP...
With the general election campaign in full swing, voters for whom marriage, religious education and freedom of religion are important issues need to inform themselves on these issues. Here is where the three main parties stand. Fine Gael Marriage and Family: Fine Gael says in its manifesto that “it recognises the value of the family...
A couple of weeks ago France’s equivalent of the Supreme Court found that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage did not violate the French Constitution. Vitally, it found that the principle of equality wasn’t breached because the State is entitled to treat different situations in different ways. This is an absolutely crucial point. Everyone believes...
Writing in The Irish Independent last week, former chief economist for the Central Bank, Tom O’Connell, said one of the reasons no-one shouted ‘stop’ during the property boom is that the boards of the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator were stuffed with people who didn’t ask the hard questions. He wrote: “With one political...
Before becoming Prime Minister, David Cameron had many good things to say about marriage and the family. Since becoming PM, however, he has been disappointing in this regard. It is said this is because his Chancellor doesn’t care whether marriage is promoted or not, and his coalition partner, Nick Clegg is actively hostile. In any...
Aggressive atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, and their media enablers like to claim that religion is “dangerous”, that it spreads prejudice and leads to societal division. Religion can have these effects, as can other ideologies and philosophies, including atheism, but there is lots of evidence to knock down such claims. For example, a...
The Family Platform is an EU body with a brief to review and research the situation of the family across the EU and recommend policy. The other day, it issued a major new report called ‘Foresight Report: Facts and Precondition of Wellbeing of Families’. As might be expected, the document is shot through with politically...
