President Higgins’ decision to sign the Government’s abortion legislation, rather than refer it to the Supreme Court, gives rise to mixed feelings. On the one hand, had he decided to refer the Bill, it would have delayed its implementation, and given some hope that it might never...
The other day I blogged about a new website in America that allows those who went through divorce as children, but are now in adulthood, to recount their often very painful and bitter experiences. I then tweeted it. Here is what Labour councillor Niamh McGowan tweeted in reply: “Like parents who make the difficult decision...
A new study, reported in the New York Times, confirms that children who grow up in areas with higher than average levels of marriage and higher than average levels of religious practice are more likely to be upwardly mobile in later life. According to the study, some of the favoured ways of tackling poverty such...
Elizabeth Marquadt is the author of ‘Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce’. Elizabeth herself is a child of divorce and grew up shuttling back and forth between the two houses of her divorced parents. This is the experience of many children of divorce. Now a...
Just when you thought that certain aspects of the culture couldn’t get any more sordid, you read a piece that makes you realise that things are sometimes a lot worse than we think. This New York Times feature explains that not only are US college students not waiting until marriage to have sex, or even...
Lucinda Creighton’s principled stand against her own Government’s abortion Bill was widely seen as an act of rare political courage, even by some who disagreed with her position. Some have suggested that not only was she sacrificing her job as Minister for Europe, but a...
My latest column in The Irish Independent explains how Irish voters were manipulated into supporting abortion legislation by poor reporting, twisted media coverage of the medical facts and the bullying tactics employed by Fine Gael towards its own TDs. However, the passage of this Bill is by no means the end of the story. There...
In last night’s marathon debate on the Government’s Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, Lucinda Creighton gave one of the most thoughtful and thorough speeches. She provided an in depth analysis of the medical and legal flaws in the Bill. Here is her speech...
Presumably Enda Kenny does not want to create a political party to rival Fine Gael. But if he did, he couldn’t do better than the job he’s doing now. We learned this weekend that not only did Mr Kenny make an electoral promise to protect Ireland’s pro-life laws, they...
On Monday, all eyes in the Dail were on Lucinda Creighton in anticipation of what she would have to say on the issue of the abortion Bill. She did not disappoint those who hoped she would express her opposition to the Bill. She has called for certain amendments, especially to Section 9 which deals with...
