Sweden is moving to ban marriage between close cousins. Such bans were once common, but oddly enough some have been rescinded as laws around marriage have been liberalised. However, sometimes we discover that certain prohibitions were introduced for good reasons. Traditionally in the West, close cousin marriage has been banned for genetic reasons, but historically...
A recent study by two pro-choice academics provides interesting insights into the GPs who offer abortion services in Ireland. Those GPs, while fully in favour of abortion, nonetheless have reservations about some of what they are seeing, and in particular about women who have had multiple abortions in a relatively short time. Very revealingly, when...
A recent survey has found that, for the first time, atheists in the UK outnumber those who believe in God. Or do they? Because an awful lot depends on exactly what people are asked. The “Explaining Atheism” project is a global research initiative led by Queen’s University Belfast and recently released interim findings appearing to...
On Saturday October 5th, The Iona Institute held its annual youth conference. The theme was ‘Whatever Happened to Tradition?‘, the title of a recent book by historian, writer, and columnist with The Daily Telegraph, Tim Stanley. Tim was the keynote speaker on the day and addressed a packed house on the theme of his book, but...
David Quinn was on RTE’s Today With Claire Byrne on Monday debating the future of religious schools with Aodhan O’ Riordáin of the Labour Party. David argued that the school system must reflect the wishes of parents, including for faith-based schools if that is what they want. Aodhan O’Riordain wants religion removed from schools completely. You can listen to...
A NEW paper from The Iona Institute shows that last year a quarter of all weddings that took place in Ireland were broadly ‘New Age’ in character, while Christian ceremonies accounted for not much more than a third of the total. The paper, by columnist Breda O’Brien, says that the Churches must respond to this...
Last week, End of Life Ireland hosted the 2024 international conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, which pro-euthanasia campaigners from around the world attended. Several speakers at the conference made no secret of their wish to see euthanasia and assisted suicide permitted on very broad grounds indeed, far beyond the terminally...
Last week, a publisher issued an apology for the stereotypical portrayal of an Irish family in a textbook. The volume, which was withdrawn following public outrage, was produced for the new Junior Cycle course on Social, Personal, and Health Education (SPHE) introduced last year by the Department of Education. A closer examination of these SPHE...
The Department of Education is to survey parents to find out what, if any changes, they want made to the school system. This will include asking them what kind of ethos they wish schools to have, including a religious one. David Quinn was on the Hard Shoulder on Newstalk to discuss the planned survey. He...
The Department of Education has published it new specifications for the Social, Personal, and Health Education (SPHE) for Senior Cycle. It will become mandatory from September 2027 and includes Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). Quite apart from what’s in the programme, what is concerning is what is left out. For example, the new curriculum, unlike...
