‘Fact Check’ at TheJournal.ie has ‘fact checked’ something Maria Steen of The Iona Institute said on Claire Byrne Live a fortnight ago about diversity in multi-denominational schools and found it to be ‘mostly false’. It is this statement that is actually false. Maria was very specific in what she said and everything she said stands...
The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute was invited last month to address the Citizens’ Assembly and give delegates some facts and figures about abortion. In my previous blog post, I have showed how it very mistakenly told delegates that married women are more likely to have abortions. In this post I will look at the claim that...
Two very questionable claims were made by one of the experts invited to address the Citizens’ Assembly last month. One is that married women have an abortion rate higher than unmarried women, and the second is that countries with highly restrictive abortion laws tend to have higher abortion rates than countries with more permissive laws....
Maria Steen of The Iona Institute appeared on TV3’s Tonight with Pat Kenny last night. The subject was the pro-life amendment to the Irish Constitution. Should we retain it or repeal it? Maria argued in favour of retention and said that if we repeal it, it will be the first time ever we have voted to...
Iona Institute Director, David Quinn, appeared on The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk yesterday. He and Senator Gerard Craughwell debated whether or not the Good Friday ban on alcohol sales should be lifted. David argued that in many European countries there are customs and laws that place restrictions on various forming of trading, especially Sunday...
The 8th amendment has saved thousands of lives, particularly of those who are disabled. Let’s consider the specific case of babies with Down Syndrome, also known as trisomy 21. In England and Wales ninety percent of those who are diagnosed before birth with Down Syndrome are aborted and there is a growing concern that these appalling...
Maria Steen of The Iona Institute was on RTE’s Claire Byrne Live last night to debate whether or not denominational schools should be allowed to select pupils on the basis of the religion of the school when there are too many applications for the number of available places at the school. The debate can be...
The Vintners’ group and the restaurateurs are campaigning once again to bring an end to the ban on selling alcohol on Good Friday. ‘It’s archaic’, they say. ‘It upsets the tourists’. They even claim (wrongly) that the Vatican sells alcohol on Good Friday. In this briefing note we deal with their arguments one by one. We...
In October, the Citizens’ Assembly invited the general public to submit written opinions and contribute to the discussion on the 8th amendment to the Constitution, which is the pro-life amendment. The response from concerned citizens has surprised the organisers for two reasons: for the huge number of submissions and for the fact that a clear majority of...
The Citizens’ Assembly deliberations into the issue of abortion and the 8th amendment are well underway. The Iona Institute made a submission to the Assembly. It concentrates on setting out the reasons why we should not hold a referendum to repeal something as fundamental as the right to life of the unborn. The submission is...
