The first quarter of this year saw a 43 per cent increase in suicides, according to yesterday's figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Almost one fifth of all births in Ireland were to cohabiting couples in the first quarter of this year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Having children makes married couples happier, and each successive child makes parents successively happier, according to new research.

The High Court has rejected an appeal by an unmarried father to prevent his ex-partner moving to the UK with her new partner and the unmarried father’s three children.

The Iona Institute has won the annual ‘Lay Organisation of the Year’ Award from the Redemptorist publication, Reality.

Amendments to the EU Budget which would have explicitly prevented projects funded by the EU going towards coercive abortion and sex-selective abortion failed to secure enough votes to be approved yesterday.

UK children’s charity Barnardo’s is looking for more same-sex couples and individuals to adopt, its head of adoption has said.

Some Christian parents need monitoring by the State because they may ‘intimidate’ their children with ideas about God, sin and hell, a BBC radio host has said.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's support for Protestant schools received warm applause at the Church of Ireland Dublin Glendalough diocesan synods in Dundrum last night.

Fine Gael MEPs are set to support an amendment to the EU Budget which would prevent funding going to “coercive abortion, involuntary sterilization or infanticide”. The amendment is opposed by the National Council of Women in Ireland (NCWI).

The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, has accused the Department of Education of “a determined and doctrinaire” attack on Protestant schools.

Two of Britain’s overseas territories, which contain references to Christianity in their constitutions, may be told to remove them by the UK's Foreign Office.

The Department of Education has sent a letter to the Catholic bishops asking them for a list of schools which they are prepared to hand over to other patrons, including the State.

A leaked draft of the US Catholic Bishops pastoral letter on marriage is set to outline many of the modern threats to the institution, it has been reported.

A church in South London believes that a council's decision to order it to lower the volume at which it plays its hymns is more to do with its faith than with noise pollution.

The Church, All Nations Centre in Kennington, has been banned from singing hymns that are too noisy, after its neighbours complained to Lambeth council.

It could now be forced to close after the Council ordered it to turn the volume down.

The pentecostal church, which has a congregation of 600 people, has been told that it cannot amplify its music or sermons after a complaint was made to the town hall.

It means that worshippers will struggle to hear traditional hymns, such as Amazing Grace and Thine Be The Glory.

The council is the second to take action against a church over the playing of music, following an order that was served last week on the Immanuel International Christian Centre in Waltham Forest, north-east London. The congregation at the Immanuel centre has dwindled from 100 to 30 because of the restrictions, and leaders at All Nations fear that the same will happen to them.

They expressed dismay at the council's decision, which they said had been made without any justification for the noise ban.

"The complaint against us has nothing to do with noise and everything to do with our faith," said Victor Jibuike, 43, a pastor at All Nations in Kennington.

"It feels as if they're trying to harrass us and drive us out."

The congregation has been meeting at All Nations since the 1960s and Mr Jibuike said that they have never received a complaint before.

He said that the church began to face opposition from neighbours after it emerged that it was in negotation with the council to develop a disused school as a community centre.

A noise officer visited the church in June, but Mr Jibuike says that church officials did not hear again from the council until last month when the ban was introduced without any warning.

"We are horrified at the implications of this order which means people will no longer be able to worship," he said, adding that the church could lose the majority of its members.

All Nations, which is part of the Evangelical Alliance, would no longer be viable if this happened, he said.

The church is appealing the council's ban and is being represented by Paul Diamond, the leading human rights barrister, who advised Caroline Petrie, the nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient and then reinstated.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, founder and director of the Christian Legal Centre, said that the church had had no complaints in the past and had served the community well.

"It is a lively, contemporary church which is trying to make Christianity relevant to 21st century Britain," she said.

"I fear the real issue behind this complaint is hostility to the Christian message, and the law is being used as a pretext to harass and silence Christian viewpoints not approved of by the State."

A spokesman for Lambeth Council said: "We only use this kind of enforcement as a last resort. We have received numerous complaints from local residents about the level of amplified noise and arranged several meetings with the centre to discuss a solution, but unfortunately the problem has continued so we have had to serve a noise abatement notice."

Meanwhile, the church in Waltham Forest can now only play music for 20 minutes on a Sunday between 11.30am and 11.50am after a complaint from Baha Uddin, who lives near the church.

He had complained that he was unable to use his garden at weekends and that his one-year-old daughter was regularly disturbed by the noise from services.

However, other neighbours have said that the noise is not a problem.

Dunni Odetoyinbo, pastor of the Immanuel centre, has claimed that the council had only told his church to keep quiet so as not to offend the local Muslim community.

A children’s rights referendum could take place as early as next year after the Green Party insisted on it as part of the renegotiation of the Programme for Government.

A woman in the US state of Massachusetts whose twin daughters have health issues has gone to court to force a sperm bank to disclose the name of their father, authorities said.

A group of prominent US Congressmen have tabled a motion to create a new amendment to the US Constitution to protect the right of parents to bring up and educate their children as they see fit.

Two of President Obama’s nominees to key positions in his Administration have radical records on issues of religious freedom and the family, it has emerged.

Irish MEP Gay Mitchell has said that the EU is perceived as "a cold place for Christians” by a growing number of people.