The National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA) recently launched a consultation paper on a proposed new curriculum for primary schools called “Education about Religion and Beliefs (ERB) and Ethics”. This short piece analyses how likely it is that ERB will be compatible with the current way of teaching religion by primary schools with a faith-based...
Iona Director David Quinn appeared on RTE’s Claire Byrne Live to debate school admissions policies with barrister Paddy Monahan. The debate focused on the criteria on which school places are allotted in the event of a shortage. David Quinn argued that the State must ensure that enough school places exist for all who want them....
A report in last week’s Irish Catholic quotes teachers who say it is very hard to talk about their faith in….Catholic schools. The teachers attended The Iona Institute seminar on denominational schools a fortnight ago and spoke during the Q and A session. This news might come as a surprise to some but it shouldn’t....
Justice Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, has signalled her willingness, in light of the passage of the Bill allowing for same-sex marriage, to alter the “prohibited degrees of relationship” that currently bar people marrying those who are considered too closely related. This raises the prospect of relationships until now considered too incestuous being permitted. The prohibited degrees...
Budget 2016 will see the Home Carer’s Credit (HCC) increase by €190 per annum. The HCC was first introduced in 2000 to slightly offset the huge discrepancy tax individualisation created between one income and two income married couples. The increase is good, but doesn’t go nearly far enough. When Charlie McCreevy announced tax individualisation as...
The debate about childcare in Ireland is not really a debate at all because, as usual, it is dominated by one side, namely those who want a State-subsidised universal day-care system available to all. To this end, they heavily promote the ‘Nordic model’. In doing so, however, they fail to distinguish between different Nordic models....
It has now emerged that Pope Francis met briefly with Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who would not hand out marriage licences to same-sex couples because of her conscientious objection to same-sex marriage. He also met with the Little Sisters of the Poor who have also been involved in a religious freedom battle of...
In his Irish Independent this week David Quinn writes about an INTO and Minister of Education-backed programme for primary schools called ‘Different Families, Same Love’ that is radically at odds with Christian teaching on marriage and the family. Among other things, the programme asks teachers to explain transgenderism to children as young as four. Read the...
No less a figure than Steven Pinker, one of the world’s best known academics, has called it “one of the most important papers in the recent history of the social sciences”. He is referring to a paper which deals with what amounts to the ideological capture of the social sciences by the political left, and...
During what debate there was about the Government’s Children and Family Relationships Act, which allowed for egg and sperm donation to anyone and everyone (donor-assisted human reproduction or DAHR), those who supported the bill had a sort of mantra that could have been taken from the Beatles. When it comes to raising children, “love is...
