New CSO data confirm a trend The Iona Institute first highlighted two years ago: the emergence of ‘New Age’ wedding ceremonies that take place overwhelmingly in hotels because it is so convenient. Both the wedding and the reception can happen in the same place. The alternative spiritual ceremonies are often offered as part of the...
Many boys today, especially those from working-class backgrounds, are caught in a downward spiral, according to a recent report by the UK Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). They are spending more time on screens, less time with other people, less time outdoors, are doing worse at school and are less likely to flourish later in...
Last year, Italy, my country, recorded just 355,000 births in a population of about 59 million. That corresponds to a fertility rate of 1.14 children per woman of childbearing age, one of the lowest in Europe and indeed in the world. Around 650,000 Italians are now dying each year. You can see the direction of...
Some months back the Department of Education invited all parents with children aged 12 or below to state what kind of school they would like to send their children to. The most important question was whether they wanted their local school to be denominational or ‘multi-denominational’ (whatever that means). Forty percent of parents took part...
The results of the Department of Education survey on the future of primary schools in Ireland show surprisingly strong continuing support for denominational education, despite church attendance now being relatively low and the percentage of people who say they are Christians falling. Although 40pc of parents who took part in the survey say they would...
Last year there was great excitement in Christian circles in Britain and elsewhere when a new report was published called ‘The Quiet Revival’. Based on a huge poll by YouGov, it seemed to show a very big increase in regular church attendance among young people in just a few years, from 4pc to 16pc. Unfortunately,...
There was good news from Scotland last week when the Scottish parliament voted by 69 votes to 57 to reject a Bill to legalise assisted suicide. This was not expected when the Bill first reared its head and especially as Scottish politics is dominated by the Scottish National Party, which is roughly equivalent to the...
Having taken part in a fair few of them myself, I am generally drawn to debates between theists and atheists about whether there is a God, or whether we need a God, or whether religion does more harm than good. I mention this because I recently watched Ross Douthat and Steven Pinker debate the proposition...
The other night RTE once again aired its documentary about the Housewife of the Year competition, which was a rather quaint, twee contest that ran from 1967 until 1995. But it was also extremely popular for many years and was in sync with the mores of their time. That, of course, is a big problem...
The Department of Education asked all interested parties to make submissions to a new ‘National Conversation on Education’ launched recently. The ‘conservation’ is described by the Department of Education as a “once in a generation opportunity for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help shape Ireland’s education system for decades to come.”...
