The Iona Blog

A surrogacy and an adoption case reveal the Government’s double standards

The Government have refused to recognise an Irish couple’s adoption of a young Mexican girl, because it did not meet the strict requirements of the Hague Convention on international adoption. But when a similar case arose where the parents obtained a child through surrogacy in India, the State took a very different approach. In both...

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When a child’s right to a mother is trumped by ‘tolerance’

David Quinn, in his column in the Irish Independent this week, poses the question, “Does the ‘right’ of two men to have a child trump the child’s natural right to be raised by a mother?” He points out that the answer virtually the entire political establishment now gives to this question is an emphatic ‘yes’....

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The ‘marriage equality’ leader in The Irish Times spectacularly misses the point

There is a leader in The Irish Times today in favour of ‘marriage equality’ that is particularly philosophically illiterate. It seems to have no understanding whatever of why the institution of marriage has ever had special status historically and tellingly offers no definition of marriage at all. Its illiteracy is particularly revealed in the penultimate...

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A child can’t have two biological mothers. ‘That’s your opinion’

Last week, David Quinn appeared on the Today with Sean O’Rourke show to debate same-sex marriage with Waterford Labour TD Ciara Conway.   During the debate, David pointed out the blindingly obvious, namely that where a child has two parents of the same sex, only one can be the birth parent. Ms Conway’s reply, oddly,...

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Convention recommends replacing blasphemy with incitement to hatred provision

The Constitutional Convention has recommended removing the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution, and replacing it with a new provision prohibiting incitement to religious hatred against minority groups. They also voted to strengthen existing incitement to hatred legislation. At its meeting at the weekend, 61pc of the Convention’s members voted against keeping the Constitutional provision...

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A divorced father tells his story

I am a divorced parent of three children. I work full time on earnings about 20% above the 2012 average industrial wage. I separated in 2002 and was “married but living apart” until 2011 when legally divorced.  I have always paid two thirds of my income in maintenance – voluntarily from 2002 to 2011 and...

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David Quinn debates same-sex marriage on Today with Sean O’Rourke

David Quinn debated Waterford Labour TD Ciara Conway on RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke earlier today as the Government prepares to announce a referendum on the subject. You can listen to the debate here.

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Does Eamon Gilmore believe in motherhood and fatherhood?

The news that Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore wants to see legislation introduced that will allow same-sex couples to adopt before a referendum on same-sex marriage is instructive in a number of ways. First, it tells us just how scared the Government is of the argument that children have a right to a mother and father. It...

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State flouting the presumption of innocence with its seizure of children

The big story this week was the seizure by gardai of two children from their Roma families on suspicion they did not belong to those families. It turned out that they did. The two cases have highlighted to the public the extent of the State’s powers to remove children from their families. David Quinn writes...

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Submission to the consultation on how to make denominational schools more ‘inclusive’

Parents of primary school children have been invited to respond to proposals by Expert Group of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism aimed at making denominational schools more ‘inclusive’. Following is a slightly abridged version of a response to this invitation by parents Kate and Alan Whelan. The deadline for submissions to this consultation is...

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