The Government has given an assurance to the bishops that there will be no watering down of the Constitutional rights of the family under a proposed amendment on children’s rights, according to a report in today's Irish Catholic.

Archbishop Sean Brady, Primate of All-Ireland, has welcomed the establishment of the Iona Institute as a “timely initiative”, according to a report in the Irish Catholic newspaper..

For what is believed to be the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

The news comes as census results also reveal that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time. Researchers believe that the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

Women are marrying later, living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods, women are living longer as widows and, low marriage rates among black women are believed to be some of the factors behind the trend.

Only about 30 percent of black women are living with a spouse, according to the Census Bureau, compared with about 49 percent of Hispanic women, 55 percent of non-Hispanic white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women.

Reacting to the findings, Prof. Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, said that the research showed that marriage is no longer the main focus of everybody's life.

“Most of these women will marry, or have married. But on average, Americans now spend half their adult lives outside marriage,” she continued. Professor Coontz said this was probably unprecedented with the possible exception of major wartime mobilizations and when black couples were separated during slavery.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, described the shift as “a clear tipping point, reflecting the culmination of post-1960 trends associated with greater independence and more flexible lifestyles for women.”

The proportion of married people in the US, especially among younger age groups, has been declining for decades. Between 1950 and 2000, the share of women 15-to-24 who were married plummeted to 16 percent, from 42 percent. Among 25-to-34-year-olds, the proportion dropped to 58 percent, from 82 percent.

The Government's planned referendum on children's rights, which could change as many as three separate articles of the Constitution, may only present voters with one question.

A new longitudinal study of the lives of children in Ireland will include questions about family structure allowing Irish researchers to investigate for the first time and in a meaningful way the effects of family structure on children.

Laws which give cohabiting couples marriage-like rights may not lead to fewer marriages, according to new research.

A lawyer from the firm responsible for the "Unhappy Christmas" ad has apologised. Angela Farrell, a managing partner of Farrell Family Law Solicitors, who were behind the ad, said that regretted any offence caused.

Ireland's divorce laws are in need of "a fundamental examination", according to Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne. Senator Browne expressed concern that Irish divorces are awarded on a "no fault" basis.

Marriage and prayer are among some of the key factors in people's happiness, a new study commissioned by the UK Government has found. The research, carried out by an economics professor at London's Imperial College, found that people in stable relationships and people who prayed were more content than their fellow citizens.

Two elderly spinster sisters yesterday lost a legal battle to be given the same rights as gay and lesbian couples - meaning one will be forced to sell their home of 40 years when the other dies.

Family breakdown is the key cause of the collapse of social cohesion in the UK. That's according to a major new study published by the Conservative Party. The study, commissioned by former leader Iain Duncan Smith, paints a disturbing picture of the decline of the institution of marriage in Britain. And it details the painful social consequences which have resulted from the phenomenon of family breakdown.

A High Court judge has warned that the research showing that children of same sex parents have substantially similar outcomes to those of heterosexual parents is not sufficiently advanced to draw and safe conclusions.