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.

There were 316 votes against Amendment 733, which would have explicitly prevented funding of coercive abortion, with 305 MEPs voting for the amendment.

In the case of Amendment 732, which would have prevented EU funding being used for projects which fund sex selective abortions, there were 300 votes against and 304 votes for.

However, at this stage a majority of 365 votes would have been needed to pass the amendments.

The amendments were opposed by the National Council of Women in Ireland (NCWI). In a letter to its members, the NCWI makes clear its support for a lobby campaign by the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) which opposes these amendments on the grounds that they are part of a ‘wider agenda’.

The EWL argued that the amendments would mean that “independent agencies which promote a rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health in countries where there is an authoritarian regime may be held responsible, by association, of the human rights abuses of that regime in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights”.

Groups such as International Planned Parenthood Federation have been involved in giving assistance to the Communist government of China in their coercive population control programme.

The EWL also opposes the amendment which refers to gender-based eugenic discrimination, on the basis that “it seeks to lay a basis for considering that a foetus has rights from the ‘moment of conception’ and therefore undermine national provisions which regulate access to termination of pregnancy as well to emergency contraception”.

The EWL also argues that the phrase “at any point after conception” used in the amendment “is a phrase used by some extremist, religiously-inspired groups and individuals who oppose access to legal abortion”.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs voted for the amendments, as did Independent MEP Marian Harkin. The three Labour MEPs, Nessa Childers, Prionsias De Rossa and Alan Kelly, and Socialist MEP Joe Higgins, voted against the amendments.

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.

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.