Almost half of practising Catholics have returned to Mass post-lockdown says new poll but fear of Covid still a big factor among those who have not come back yet 56pc of Mass-goers think First Holy Communion ceremonies should take place again A new Amarach Research poll commissioned by The Iona Institute shows that 46pc of...
Applications for divorce reached their highest level ever last year, according to new data from the Courts Service. Some 5,266 applications were made, an increase of 29pc on 2019, and by far the highest annual figure since divorce was introduced in 1997. Breda O’Brien, Patron of the Iona Institute and Irish Times Columnist was on Newstalk Breakfast yesterday to discuss...
The Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia, proposed by Deputy Gino Kenny, has been rejected by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice as it contains serious flaws and it was criticised by the majority of the public submissions, particularly by doctors. The Committee has recommended that a Special Oireachtas Committee should be...
In many countries, including Ireland, not enough babies are being born to prevent the population ageing and declining. Many factors are at work, including the cost of living. But another, linked factor, is that increasingly we prioritise work over family, that is ‘workism’ supplants ‘familism’. Different strategies have been implemented by governments to tackle low...
The Oireachtas Justice Committee discussed the topic of assisted suicide/euthanasia in private session during the week. We wonder if the members considered concerns raised by disability rights groups internationally about such laws affect them, the signal it sends that their lives are less worth living than those of fully healthy people. Four United Nations Rapporteurs...
“100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion, why change that?”, said a Northern Ireland-based billboard campaign in 2017. The Advertising Standard Authority found the claim was largely accurate. Now we can see how accurate the ad was, because a radical liberalisation of the North’s abortion law in March of last year...
By Jim Stack Using newly-published data from the Department of Health about the number of abortions that took place in Ireland last year, this article summarises the 2020 abortion statistics for each county, and compares them with 2019. Briefly, an unborn child was over twice as likely to be aborted in Dublin as in Laois....
A total of 6,577 women had an abortion in Ireland in 2020, according to a report presented today by the Department of Health. That is slightly down on the figure of 6,666 in 2019, but the ratio (number of abortions per live births) is up, because fewer women became pregnant last year, so it is...
A new report that presents abortion as a ‘human right’ and would undermine conscientious objection was approved by the European Parliament last week. Every Irish MEP voted in favour of it. The report does not have the force of law behind it, but it is all part of an effort to shift the EU in...
Children who are practising Catholics are being targeted for bullying in school, according to the director of Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre. They are now a minority to be protected. Professor James O’Higgins Norman was speaking last week at the Oireachtas Committee on Education, about the topic of school bullying and the impact on mental...
