The question of the place of religion in European public life is a critical one – and a four-year research project into faith and secularisation in Europe finds underlying links between a variety of of different kinds of church-and-state issues. At first glance, Irish Catholics voting for same-sex marriage, British Muslims living according to sharia...
After the US Supreme Court legalised and constitutionalised same-sex marriage in all 50 states last week, there’s been a lot of talk about questions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. How will dissenters from the new view of marriage fare in the new dispensation? Two pieces of writing, from UK Barrister Neil Addison and...
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recently called for Ireland to hold a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, which recognises the equal right to life of the unborn. The Committee called for Ireland to legislate for abortion on the grounds of rape, incest and threat to the health of the mother...
Father’s Day is coming up this weekend (21/6) and this article from the Institute for Family Studies shows that a father is more likely to be involved with his children if he is married to the mother of his children. The article cites studies showing that mothers are much more likely than fathers to act...
What do mothers and fathers bring to parenting that is different and complementary? This was one important issue that came up in the recent marriage referendum. Many of those on the Yes side claimed all a child needs is love, but that the sex of the parents per se (and by logical extension the biological...
In a piece in The Irish Times today Laura Slattery basically calls for a total end to the debate about same-sex marriage. She declares: “We have had the debate and the question has been settled”. Slattery then turns her attention to the pesky requirement for balance on the airwaves. Surely we won’t have to have...
The Iona Institute helped to represent the almost 750,000 voters who voted against the redefinition of marriage and the family on May 22. No political party was willing to represent those voters. We will continue to argue for the importance of marriage in society and for the rights of religious believers in an increasingly secularised...
On the “Constitution Project” blog recently, Dr Conor O’Mahony of UCC Law Department, took issue with points made by Dr Tom Finegan of Mothers and Fathers Matter on the likely effects of the proposed referendum on future laws on adoption, surrogacy and donor-assisted human reproduction. Now, Dr Finegan responds to Dr O’Mahony’s critique explaining why...
Preference for motherhood and fatherhood in Irish law likely to be unconstitutional under new Article 41 If we pass the marriage referendum as the Government wants it will have profound changes on how we view the family in our law. A major legal opinion commissioned by The Iona Institute examines this question. It shows that any ability...
insert soundboard here “Heather Has Two Mommies” was a children’s picture book published in 1989, about a child being raised by a lesbian couple. For Heather Barwick, this scenario was her life. Speaking at a conference on marriage and the family in Dublin last weekend, Heather told her story, saying that while she loves...
