Breda O’Brien was interviewed by Hugh Linehan today for the Irish Times’ ‘Inside Politics’ podcast. She speaks in a very heartfelt way about the impact the vilification she has been subjected to by some people for disagreeing with same-sex marriage has had on her, as well as giving her thoughts on the whole controversy surrounding...
The Dominican Timothy Radcliffe would be no-one’s idea of a ‘conservative’ in theological terms or any other terms for that matter. In a very interesting blog on the issue of same-sex marriage that he wrote for the Guardian newspaper he welcomed “the wave of support for same-sex marriage”, but at the same time reaffirms marriage...
A few interesting developments in the ongoing debate about the uses and misuses of the word ‘homophobia’: First, Paddy Manning and our director David Quinn were on Prime Time opposite Senator Ivana Bacik and Brian Finnegan. Link here. For what it’s worth, both Bacik and Finnegan agreed that opposition to gay marriage was not automatically...
Tuesday night’s episode of Tonight with Vincent Browne featured Kevin Brophy, the solicitor who represented The Iona Institute in our dispute with RTE, and Paddy Manning, a gay man who opposes gay marriage, discussing the use of the word ‘homophobia’ Paul Murphy MEP and Noeline Blackwell of the Free Legal Advice Centre were also on...
On yesterday’s edition of Newstalk’s The Right Hook programme, George Hook won a victory for common sense, and for the real meaning of free speech. Hook was speaking to Senator Ivana Bacik about the protest organised by LGBT Noise objecting to RTE’s apology and financial settlement with a number of people, including representatives of the...
In his column in The Irish Independent, David Quinn details some of the abusive and threatening emails received in the past fortnight by The Iona Institute and calls for a civil debate on same-sex marriage. Click here to read his column.
If we look at the words and actions of Ruairí Quinn in his time as Minister for Education, a clear pattern begins to emerge. One big idea unites his suggestion that schools use the time allocated for religious education to teach Maths and the Forum on Patronage’s proposal that Catholic ‘Stand Alone Schools’ move away...
On the Saturday Night Show last weekend, presenter Brendan O’Connor read out an apology to Breda O’Brien, The Iona Institute, and writer and broadcaster John Waters after a guest a fortnight before had accused all of the aforementioned parties of being ‘homophobic’. RTE has also agreed to pay damages to the injured parties. The apology...
The brutal death of Tom O’Gorman has been in the headlines since news of what happened to him broke. Tom worked at The Iona Institute since its launch seven years ago this month. The thought and prayers of everyone at The Iona Institute are with Tom’s family and friends. In this short piece, Iona Institute...
Carissa Mulder, writing on the Public Discourse blog, has an interesting analysis of the contemporary threats to religious freedom. Mulder points out that, for most pundits interested in the subject, it appears that the homosexual lobby has posed the biggest threat to religious freedom. But she suggests that it may be sexual licence in general...
