Falling births help drive 30pc drop in Catholic baptisms


A new briefing note from The Iona Institute has found that over the past 10 years, the number of baptisms…

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The Iona BlogMore Blogs

By Dr Angelo Bottone

The Catholic Education Partnership has told the UN that Ireland is discriminating against Catholic schools by forbidding them from admitting Catholic children first if a school is overenrolled. Other faith schools are allowed to favour children from their own religion...

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The stereotype suggests the housewives are an unhappy bunch. Think of the old hit TV series, ‘Desperate Housewives’. But a new study paints a different picture. Stay-at-home mothers are less likely to suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts, and their...

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Last week The Iona Institute published a widely covered briefing note called ‘Baptism Trends in Ireland’. What grabbed the headlines was the dramatic finding that the number of Catholic baptisms has fallen by 30pc in the last ten years. But...

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An important new study explores the causes of falling birth rates and unsurprisingly finds multiple causes but with the decline of marriage and intimate relationships playing a big part. The author, Tomáš Sobotka, is deputy director of the Vienna Institute...

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In computer game parlance there are ‘player characters’ and ‘non-player-characters’. The former are controlled by the humans playing the game, and the latter by the computer itself. The NPCs, in other words, do not control themselves. The terminology easily translates...

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In 2025, there were 1.35 million more deaths than births in the EU. Despite this, the population has increased slightly but that is only because of immigration. That is according to the latest annual demographics report from the EU’s official...

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In The News

Irish Examiner raises alarm about fertility freefall


There is an “urgent need” to address Ireland’s population issues, according to the Irish Examiner. In an editorial in Monday’s paper, the leader writer noted the new CSO population figures…

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Pope John Paul II’s Gospel of Life at 30 – A talk by Maria Steen

On Saturday May 3, 2025, Maria Steen (pictured) delivered a talk called “Evangelium Vitae at 30 – Pope John Paul…

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