Christmas comes around and our political leaders issue their Christmas messages and every Christmas they fail to mention the specifically religious and Christian meaning of the season. It is very peculiar, and childish. It is indicative of the stunted nature of Irish political development, a long and unhealthy reaction to the years of Catholic dominance...
Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice you will want couples to receive accurate information about the health of the baby they are expecting. A terrible case that occurred in Holles Street earlier this year shows that some of these tests are not as accurate as advertised. In this instance, a chromosomal abnormality was detected where...
Every year the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development issues its PISA report that details how 15-year olds around the world are doing in school. Academically, ours are doing pretty well, relatively speaking, as our media reported a couple of weeks ago. What was not reported, however, is that they are doing much more badly...
In his new work “Dominion; The Making of the Western Mind“, historian Tom Holland highlights the gigantic and often unacknowledged role Christianity has played in shaping Western civilisation. That includes shaping the thinking of some of Christianity’s greatest critics. Often, when they attack Christianity, they are drawing on Christian values without even knowing it. Holland,...
Maria Steen of The Iona Institute and pro-choice campaigner, Dr Peter Boylan, had a high-profile, much-commented on clash when they appeared on RTE’s Clare Byrne Live a couple of weeks before last year’s abortion referendum. In his recent book ‘In the Shadow of the Eighth’, Dr Boylan gives his account of the campaign and the...
Last week, Aid to the Church in Need Ireland launched the organisation’s new report ‘Persecuted and Forgotten’ which examines the persecution of Christians across large tracts of the planet including the Middle East, Nigeria, China, India, North Korea and Vietnam. It is estimated that 80pc of all acts of religious persecution or discrimination are conducted...
Is ‘porn literacy’ something we should be teaching in schools? If so, at what age? What is ‘porn literacy’? Is there such a thing as ‘ethical porn’? To what extent will these things be part of the planned new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) course? For clues, we might look to Kate Dawson who is...
Minister Simon Harris and co are still seeking ways to justify banning pro-life activism outside hospitals and clinics. The Oireachtas Library and Research Service has just published a report called “The impact of anti-abortion protest on women accessing services. A Rapid Evidence Assessment”, intended to discover if the protests and vigils have any lasting psychological...
The central driving force of the sex revolution, namely the belief that anything goes between consenting adults, continues to work its remorseless logic, toppling taboo after taboo. It has now reached the next one, according to a report in the Irish Times; adult incest. Last week the Law Reform Commission held a major conference in...
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, and a number of other Irish politicians, are currently attending a summit in Nairobi, Kenia, to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development. The occasion was the first time ever that economic and social development had been linked to population, or as critics would...
