Catholic primary school managers said their pupils should not be taught transgender theory, in a strongly worded letter to Government ministers.

The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) has argued there is a lack of scientific consensus on the issue, that it would create division in schools, and that it might add to “a growing psychological contagion” among children.

The CPSMA says teaching primary children “what it means to be transgender would require to teach something about which there is neither a scientific nor social consensus to highly impressionable young children”.

It would be “counterproductive, generating unnecessary divisions in school communities where none now exist”.

According to the CPSMA, “more seriously, it might add to a growing psychological contagion amongst young and vulnerable children”. There has been a huge increase in recent years in the number of children saying they are transgender.

“We believe a more prudent and sensible policy is to teach children to respect every human being and to allow children to be children,” it added.

“We should not prematurely introduce children to complex and sensitive topics around which there is no scientific or medical consensus.”

An atheist whose application to be a chaplain was rejected by the Defence Forces had been discriminated against on religion grounds, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has said.

John Hamill, a former officer with Atheist Ireland, made the complaint.

He questioned whether it was a genuine occupational requirement for the role to be a Christian appointed by a bishop, as per the usual practice. This excluded other faiths as well as non-believers. The evidence was that there were good atheist military chaplains in other militaries. He should have been able to apply for the role of chaplain and the role should be allocated to the best applicant, he said.

WRC adjudication officer Kevin Baneham ruled Mr Hamill had been discriminated against on grounds of religion, and he ordered a review of the process of appointing military chaplains to ensure compliance with the Employment Equality Act.

A recent paper examining the correlation of more premarital sex partners with more divorce has found it is not due simply to sample selection, but to some inherent destabilising factor in the sexual relationships themselves.

The paper by Jesse Smith and Nicholas H. Wolfinger in Journal of Family Issues ruled out numerous factors including religiuosity, sexual attitudes, and psychological attributes, as explanations for the phenomenon.

This left them with two broad possible explanations for their results.

“One is that there could be a causal relationship here: having premarital sexual partners, especially a lot of them, does in fact undermine the prospect of a successful marriage. Perhaps as people accumulate partners, they find that breakups get easier, develop an “other fish in the sea” mentality, or move into peer groups with weaker marriage norms, any of which might make divorce seem like more of an option”.

“The other possibility is that selection mechanisms might still be driving these differences, but we need to reconsider what those mechanisms are. Maybe there are genetic factors at work, or unmeasured psychological traits such as hypersexuality that contribute to both promiscuity and divorce”.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of a Nicaraguan bishop who was sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment after refusing to leave the country for exile insisting he wanted to be with his people.

Mr Martin said he was “gravely concerned” about Bishop Rolando Álvarez (56) and the wider crackdown in the Central American country under authoritarian leader Daniel Ortega.

It comes as the regime announced a new ban on public processions for the ‘way of the cross’, a popular devotion in the mainly-Catholic country.

Mr Martin insisted that the Department of Foreign Affairs is closely monitoring the bishop’s detention “and continues to call for his immediate and unconditional release, as well as that of all other remaining political prisoners”.

“The continued human rights violations, crackdowns on opposition voices, on civil society and on independent media, together with backsliding on democratic norms, are unacceptable,” Mr Martin said in a written answer to a question from Laois-Offaly independent TD Carol Nolan.

A leading voice in Catholic education has welcomed the dropping of references to gender being “experienced along a spectrum” from the new Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum following consultation with the public. SPHE includes Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE).

The idea is part of a radical theory that says a person’s ‘gender’ has no necessary connection with their biological sex.

CEO of the Catholic Education Partnership Alan Hynes told The Irish Catholic that they’re “glad to see that the final draft reflects some of our concerns and observations” regarding the proposals for the new curriculum.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) agreed to change a “learning outcome” in a draft for the new SPHE curriculum, according to papers seen by The Sunday Times over the weekend.

“Like ourselves, I think parents will be satisfied that the concerns that they communicated to the NCCA through the consultation process have been attended to,” Mr Hynes said, continuing, “this was important as parents are the primary educators of their children and their views on questions of morals and values are of paramount importance within the education system”.

A Belgian woman who murdered her five children in a case that shocked the country has been euthanised at her own request, 16 years to the day after their killing, her lawyer has said.

Genevieve Lhermitte killed her son and four daughters aged three to 14 at the family home in the town of Nivelles on 28 February 2007, while their father was away.

She then tried to take her own life but the attempt failed and she ended up calling the emergency services.

Lhermitte was sentenced to life in prison in 2008, before being moved to a psychiatric hospital in 2019.

The 56-year-old’s lawyer Nicolas Cohen confirmed to AFP reports in local media that his client had died through euthanasia on the 16th anniversary of the killings on Tuesday.

Belgian law allows for people to chose to be euthanised if they are deemed to be suffering from “unbearable” psychological, and not just physical, suffering that cannot be healed.

The person must be conscious of their decision and be able to express their wish in a reasoned and consistent manner.

Journalist, playwright, author and feminist Mary Kenny has had her invitation to speak at a conference organised by the University of Limerick revoked.

Kenny, who was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, was due to deliver a presentation as keynote speaker on the evolution of feminism titled ‘The Media and Feminism over six decades to coincide with International Women’s Day’.

The International Women’s Day Conference 2023 is hosted by the University itself, rather than any student body. Marketing materials urge readers to “imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated”, and then adds: “Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity”.

Her invitation was rescinded by the University following complaints about her stance on gender ideology, a stance common to many other feminists who reject the idea that biological sex and gender are unrelated.

University administrators were put under pressure by militants and caved into demands that she be disinvited from the March 8 event.

Commenting on the decision, Kenny said that the organising committee at the university was “put under enormous pressure” to cancel her and that it was “a pity not to have open discourse” but that the “objectors seem highly sensitive to that suggestion”.

Four pupils have been suspended from a West Yorkshire secondary school after a copy of the Quran was damaged by students.

Wakefield’s Kettlethorpe High School caters to children aged 11-16 and offers a comprehensive admissions policy.

Wednesday’s incident happened when a copy of the Islamic text was brought in by a Year 10 pupil, the second oldest class of students.

Head teacher Tudor Griffiths said the book remained intact and there was “no malicious intent” from those involved.

He held a meeting with concerned community leaders on Friday.

Independent councillor for Wakefield East, Akef Akbar, called the meeting after being contacted by people calling for more information.

He said reports the Quran had been burnt or destroyed were untrue, and he had inspected the book himself during the meeting.

Mr Akbar said he had been told the book had been taken to school as a dare by a pupil who lost while playing a Call of Duty videogame with other students.

While at the school it sustained a slight tear to the cover and smears of dirt on some of the pages.

Almost €1 million has been spent by the HSE on advertising abortion in the first four years of the procedure being legal in Ireland, according to recent replies to parliamentary questions.

It was also revealed that the HSE has paid the money to the pro-choice MyOptions hotline.

In 2019, €434,754 was spent, while in the following years €149,177, €155,322, and €95,071 went towards the advertising and marketing strategies.

In response, Independent Deputy Carol Nolan said: “The fact that the HSE has incurred costs of almost €1m to advance the abortion agenda while leaving the promotion of positive life affirming alternatives to wither in silent media obscurity says it all. The message of death gets a government sponsored loudspeaker. The message of life is muzzled and muted. Where is the justice in that for unborn children and the women who are crying out for help to keep their babies?”

A new paper by a trio of academics bolsters the case that ‘deaths of despair’ stem in part from weakening social ties including a decline in religious participation.

It shows that mortality from these causes—drug overdoses, alcohol-related illness and suicides—among middle-aged white people in the US stopped falling around 1990, well before the dramatic rise in opioid use. The authors, Tyler Giles of Wellesley, Daniel Hungerman of Notre Dame and Tamar Oostrom of Ohio State, instead looked at religious services for an underlying cause.

They found that states with more religious participation had fewer deaths of despair, and that the faster religious attendance fell in a state, the more such deaths rose.

An earlier paper published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2020, showed that of 110,000 health workers, those who went to religious services were less likely to die from these causes.