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Irish teen girls second worst for binge drinking, says report
~Irish teenage girls have the second highest rate of binge drinking in the developed world, second only to those in the US, and the weakening of the traditional family is partly to blame, according to a new report. The report, Health of the World's Adolescents, published in the medical journal The Lancet showed that 30pc of US teen girls aged 13-15 had been engaged in binge drinking in the past 30 days. For Irish teens in the same age bracket, the comparable rate was 29pc, higher than any other European countries for which data was available. Read more...
Unstable parental relationships linked to higher risk of child poverty, report says
~Children in lone parent families or whose parents are cohabiting are among those at most risk of poverty according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). According to the report, entitled Understanding Childhood Deprivation in Ireland, even after controlling for other factors, children living in lone parent families are at a higher risk of living in poverty. Other risk factors included mothers with low levels of educational attainment and families in which the father is unemployed. Read more...
Children's referendum to contain reference to “best interests of the child”, Minister says
~The Government's proposed children's referendum will contain a reference to the “best interest” of the child, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) has said. Legal experts have warned that the term “best interests” could be used in such a way as to make intervention by the State in family life too easy. Speaking on RTE Radio's News at One on Wednesday, she said that the referendum would ask people “do you you believe we should consider the very best interests of the child when decisions are being taken about that child?” Read more...
Law will require priests to break seal of confession, says Shatter
~The Government's new child protection guidelines will prosecute priests who refuse to break the seal of Confession, the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter (pictured) has confirmed. Speaking last night he said that priests who heard information about child abuse in confession would not be exempted. Earlier, speaking on RTE's News at One, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald had confirmed that priests would be required to reveal what they had heard in Confession. “We haven't made any exclusions or exemptions," she said in response to a question from Sean O'Rourke as to whether the seal of Confession would be protected by the law. "Everybody's under an obligation to report." Read more...
Ireland backs transsexual rights at conference on teenage health
~Ireland has backed a Norwegian motion in favour of transsexual rights at a UN conference on teenage health being held in New York. The paragraph proposed by Norway expresses “grave concern regarding the acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity”. The conference, held by the UN's Commission on Population and Development, is entitled Adolescents and Health. Read more...
Surrogacy a form of commodification says report
~Surrogacy is a form of commodification of human beings, like human trafficking or the trade in human organs, according to a document to be presented to the Council of Europe tomorrow. The document, Surrogate Motherhood: A Violation of Human Rights, is published by the European Centre for Law and Justice, which is a Europe-wide group dedicated to promoting human rights. It says that surrogacy “violates the dignity of both the surrogate mother and the child”. Read more...
Quinn surprised at defence of Catholic ethos of Catholic college
~Education Minister Ruairí Quinn (pictured), has told sources said that he was “surprised” by a recent address in which the president of Mary Immaculate, Limerick, Rev Prof Michael Hayes, stressed the college’s Catholic ethos, according to the Irish Times. This is despite the fact that Mary Immaculate College is a Catholic teacher training college. Mr Quinn is set to order a review into teacher training colleges amid suggestions of course duplication and allegations that some colleges are spending too much time teaching religion. Read more...
Mothers in the home ‘being forced into workforce’
~Mothers who work in the home are being forced to go back into paid employment because of financial pressures, a UK cabinet minister has warned. Secretary for Employment, Chris Grayling said that the demise of the stay-at-home mum was one “very obvious” trend from the current jobs market, according to the Daily Mail. He said: “I think we are seeing more stay-at-home mums saying, ‘I think I’ll look for a part-time job’.” When asked if they were returning to work for financial reasons, Mr Grayling said: “I suspect so.” Read more...
School-children to be taught paganism as part of RE
~School children in Cornwall are to be taught about paganism as part of their religious education classes for the first time. The controversial move means that the youngsters will be taught about pagan beliefs, such as witchcraft, in addition to faiths like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The contentious requirements say that children should begin learning about the pagan understanding of standing stones like Stonehenge from the age of five. Read more...
Children ‘being damaged by easy access to porn’ inquiry hears
~Many children are “easily accessing online pornography” and are suffering as a result, a cross-party parliamentary inquiry has found. According to the inquiry, children’s attitudes to sex, relationships and body image are all being negatively affected by seeing internet pornography. Studies noted in the inquiry’s report suggested that four out of five children aged 14-16 regularly access online pornography at home. Read more...
Incest couple lose case at ECHR
~A German man who fathered four children with his sister has failed to get his conviction for incest overturned at the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled that Germany’s criminalisation of sex between siblings is justified for the protection of marriage and the family, the Daily Telegraph reports. Patrick Stuebing had argued that his sexual relationship with his sister is not abnormal, and that Germany has interfered with his rights to privacy and a family life. Read more...
Same-sex marriage “not in best interests of children” say gay commentator
~The redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples is not in the best interests of children, according to a column in today’s Irish Times. The column, by commentator Richard Waghorne (pictuted), who is himself gay, says that same-sex marriage would mean that marriage would lose “its nature as the one institution supported by society because it is the family form which on average gives a child the most advantageous upbringing”. Read more...
Woman who used surrogate to become a mother demands maternity rights
~A woman who used her cousin as a surrogate mother to carry her twin daughter shas been told she is not entitled to maternity rights and is calling for a change to the law. The woman, Jane Kassim, was born without a womb and her cousin agreed to act as a surrogate, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph. The cousin, Amy Bellamy, gave birth by Caesarean section to two children and Jane, who is the genetic mother, discovered wasn't entitled to maternity leave or the statutory pay. Read more...
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Sweden introduces gender neutral alternative to ‘he’ and ‘she’
~Sweden has introduced a new, gender neutral pronoun into its language. The new pronoun, “hen”, was included in the country's National Encyclopedia earlier this year. It is intended to be used instead of the Swedish words for ‘he’ and ‘she’ ("han" and "hon"). The move comes after pressure from “gender-neutral activists” who are campaigning for the removal of all traditional gender roles on the grounds that gender roles are the creations of society – or ‘social constructs’ - with no real basis in nature. Read more...
A quarter of Irish 15-17 year olds have had sex says new survey
~Just over a quarter of 15-17 year olds report that they have ever had sex, according to a new survey into the health of Irish children. The new study, The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, carried out in 2010 by the Department of Health and the Health Promotion Research Centre, National University of Ireland, Galway found that 27pc of teenagers in this age bracket had reported having sex. Read more...
Christians being treated as bigots says Lord Carey
~Christians in Britain are being treated as “bigots” and sacked for expressing their beliefs, the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has said. In a submission to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Lord Carey, who served as Archbishop from 1991 to 2002, also warned of a “drive to remove Judaeo-Christian values from the public square”. According to The Daily Telegraph, he accused Britain’s courts of consistently applying “equality law to discriminate against Christians”. Read more...
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Senator Mullen criticises report on denominational schools
~Senator Ronan Mullen has condemned the report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism trying to impose a “diktat, unprecedented even by the standards of more multicultural European countries, about the use of religious symbols, art and, incredibly, prayers”. Writing in today's Irish Times, Senator Mullen also warned that there might be “issues about the constitutionality of such proposals since they appear to undermine the right of parents to choose authentic denominational education and the rights of religious communities to meet that demand”. Read more...
High powered meeting to discuss ECHR ‘overreach’
~A meeting of ministers from 47 states begins tomorrow which will discuss the role of the European Court of Human Rights. One of the big issues to be discussed is whether the court is exceeding its powers and has become too activist. The conference will take place in Brighton in England and earlier this year, British Prime Minister David Cameron that the ECHR must not "undermine its own reputation" by overruling national courts and becoming a "small claims court" rather than dealing with serious human rights violations. Read more...
Most Americans believe in positive effects of Christianity
~More Americans believe that Christianity has a positive impact than a negative impact on key issues such as the level of crime and poverty in society, raising children with good morals and ethics in business, a new poll shows. The survey, commissioned by American research firm Grey Matter, asked 1,000 American adults whether they feel the Christian faith generally has a positive impact, a negative impact, or no real impact on 16 different areas of society, including sexuality, poverty, business ethics, crime, the role of women in society, and how people treat the environment. Read more...
Quinn promises to amend Section 37
~The Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn (pictured), will publish legislation that will force denominational schools to employ openly gay teachers. Speaking earlier this week at the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), he said he would look at legislation to amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, the Irish Times reported. The provision allows religious institutions to refuse to hire anyone who they believe would compromise the organisation’s ethos. Read more...
Most Catholics think Church teaching on sex ‘irrelevant’ says poll
~Seventy five per cent of Catholics in Ireland say that Church teaching on sex is not relevant to them or their families, according to a new poll. The survey, carried out by Amárach Research, asked over a thousand Irish Catholics, both those who don't attend Church as well as regular Mass-goers, “Do you believe that the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality are relevant to you or your family?” According to the poll, commissioned by the Association of Catholic Priests, 75pc said No and 25pc said yes. Read more...
Children taken into care at record levels
~The number of applications to take children into care in the UK has gone over 10,000 for the first time, according to the latest figures. Over 800 legal proceedings were launched by councils in England to remove at-risk youngsters from their families in March alone, the Daily Telegraph reports. The children’s court advisory service dealt with 10,199 cases between April 2011 and March 2012, which represents a near doubling of the number of children taken into care since 2007. January 2012 saw the highest ever number for a single month, with 912 referrals made. Read more...
Catholic academics strongly criticise Forum report
~Recommendations made by the Advisory Group to the Goverment's Forum on Patronage and Pluralism represent “a serious threat to the right to denominational education in primary schools in Ireland,” two leading Catholic academics have said. Writing in yesterday's Irish Examiner, Prof Eamonn Conway and Dr Rik Van Nieuwenhove, who lecture in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick said that the report, if implemented, would “severely hinder a faith-based school from fulfilling its legal responsibility and right to uphold and foster a denominational school ethos”. Read more...
Ban on inappropriate clothes for children approved by Minister
~A ban on ‘sexy' clothes for girls as young as five is to be introduced by the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald (pictured). Items such as crop tops, high heels and t-shirts with suggestive slogans for pre-teens are to be outlawed within weeks, according to a report in the Evening Herald. The report says that retailers such as Penneys and Dunnes Stores have agreed to remove the items from their shelves. Read more...
Accusations of segregation "pejorative", says VEC head
~Marie Griffin, the chief executive of County Dublin VEC, the school patron body charged with running five new multi-denominational primary schools, has defended the religious education scheme used by the schools from accusations that it “segregates” children. And she said that those who accused the new schools of “segregating young children on sectarian grounds”, were engaged in “a mischievous and pejorative use of language”. Read more...
Cardinal O’Brien urges Christians to wear a cross every day
~The leader of Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien (pictured), has called on Christians to wear a cross every day as a way of countering the marginalisation of faith from public life. In his Easter Sunday sermon, Cardinal O'Brien said: “I hope that increasing numbers of Christians adopt the practice of wearing a cross in a simple and discreet way as a symbol of their beliefs. “Easter provides the ideal time to remind ourselves of the centrality of the cross in our Christian faith. Read more...
Forum recommendations would “undermine” ethos of denominational schools
~Certain of the recommendations in the report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector “would seriously undermine the identity of denominational schools”, the Iona Institute has said in a statement released today. The proposals recommend the abolition of Rule 68, which allows denominational schools to permeate their day with their own ethos and the amendment of the Equal Status Act so that the right of such schools to admit children of their own faith first, will be curtailed. Read more...
Growing doubts about Cameron’s same-sex marriage proposal
~The majority of Conservative MPs have real doubts about whether David Cameron's (pictured) plan to legalise same-sex marriage will succeed, according to The Daily Telegraph, and a majority of all MPs say that the law is of little importance to their constituents. According to an all-party poll of MPs, only 41 per cent of Conservatives believe that the proposal will succeed. Almost as many Tory MPs (37 per cent) feel the proposal will fail and 22 per cent said they were unsure, the survey carried out by ComRes found. Read more...
Egg and sperm donation ‘should be as obvious as giving blood’
~Egg and sperm donation should be as obvious as giving blood, the UK’s fertility watchdog has said. The comments come a week after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), tripled the payment to women donating their eggs from £250 to £750 per cycle of donation. The remarks ignore the concerns of thousands of donor-offspring, now in adulthood, who are demanding their rights and often oppose egg and sperm donations altogether as an attack on the natural ties. Read more...
Minister Quinn attacks time spent teaching RE and Irish
~Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn (pictured) has again suggested that the amount of time spent on religious education is harming the teaching of maths and English. He also criticized the amount of time spent teaching Irish. Speaking to the Irish Times, he claimed in some schools 30 per cent of weekly teaching time is spent on religion and the teaching of Irish. It was suggested this emphasis could be detracting from other education such as maths and English. "If we are worried about literacy and numeracy and this figure is close to being correct ... then we have to ask ourselves questions," Mr Quinn remarked. Read more...
Parents angry at shortage of places at local Catholic schools
~The Department of Education is refusing to meet a demand by parents for extra places in a Catholic school in the Co. Meath town of Ashbourne. Instead, it is insisting that the parents send their children to a new Educate Together school which does not teach denominational-specific education during school hours. The parents do not want to send their children to the Educate Together school. In the Ashbourne area there are approximately 260 baptisms annually but only 150 places in the local Catholic schools at junior infant level. Read more...
Children could be better off with three parents not two says academic
~Children might be better off having three legal parents rather than just one or two, an academic has argued. In an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Daniela Cutas, of the University of Gothenberg suggested that “the necessity of the max-two parents framework” needed to be challenged. Cutas argued that while there may be drawbacks to families with more than two parents, the benefits could be significant. Read more...
Thirty thousand child protection cases a year in Ireland
~There are 30,000 child protection cases every year and of these 1,500 involve children who are the victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse, the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) has revealed. The minister was speaking at the Fine Gael ardfheis at the weekend. Her comments come after it emerged that a report into the deaths of a number of children in care is set to reveal serious and sustained failures by the State to properly protect 115 vulnerable children. The report is set to be released in the next number of weeks. Read more...
Hospital acknowledges right of nurse not to perform abortions
~A Catholic nurse in the UK who was threatened with being fired because she refused to work on an abortion ward has won her case without having to go to court. The nurse, who does not wish to be named, managed to persuade her employers that her right to refuse to carry out, or assist in, abortions was protected under the 1967 Act which liberalised the abortion law in the UK, according to The Daily Telegraph. Read more...
Doctor fired after sending a prayer to colleagues
~A Christian doctor in the UK who was disciplined and eventually fired for emailing a prayer to colleagues in a bid to raise their spirits is suing the hospital that sacked him. Dr David Drew, 64, said that he was made to feel like a “religious maniac” after sending out a prayer by St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, to motivate his department. He told an employment tribunal that he was subsequently disciplined and ordered to refrain from using religious references in professional communication. Read more...
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