Last week the Italian parliament passed a bill aimed at boosting the country’s low birth rate by supporting parents. “We have approved the Family Act to support parenting, combat the falling birth rate, encourage the growth of children and young people, and the help parents reconcile of family life with work, especially for women,” Premier Giuseppe Conte […]
Extraordinary: https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1275500569940176897 The background to this: Some weeks ago, anarchist protestors in Seattle set up what they called an “autonomous zone” – basically their own independent quasi-country, in the city. Two nights ago, protestors in Washington DC threatened to do the same. Trump was having none of it. Twitter says that Trump’s tweet constituted a […]
This is getting remarkably little scrutiny, after Irish Times scoop-getter general Fiach Kelly reported it last night: The Greens have widened the eligibility for members who can vote by telephone on the PfG. Was previously only allowed for those outside the country. Now members who have not received ballot paper can vote by phone. https://t.co/UKsBU23wJG […]
Marriage continues to change and decline in Ireland as the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show. Fewer marriages are taking place, fewer are taking place in churches, more are taking place between people who were married before and are now divorced, and couples are older when they marry. Same-sex marriage is now permitted. In 2019, […]
Yesterday morning the former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter sent out a tweet calling on several political parties and organisations, including the Irish Catholic Bishops development agency, Trócaire, to publicly comment on what he has termed “a despicable attack by Hamas thugs on an 85-year-old woman in Gaza.” Part of the reason Mr Shatter specifically […]
The global soul-searching over the issue of racism, contemporary and historic, that has taken place since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May has not escaped Ireland. It has taken many forms, some instructive, others less so. One of the most commented-on has been an investigation of the ways in which the […]
By making Sinn Fein the de facto opposition, the leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green party have cemented their own demise. Upon watching the iconoclastic mania sweep the United Kingdom, I was reminded of the final scene in Franklin Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes: “You finally really did it. You maniacs, you blew it up! God damn you […]
There are some things that are inarguably true about the policies of the Green Party, and their priorities in Government, but that rarely get mentioned. It’s important to catalogue them, every now and again. For example: It is true that if Ireland was to cease to exist, and produce no emissions at all, it would […]
Fun fact: Iconoclasm was last in vogue, in the Christian world, during the reign of Leo the Armenian as Byzantine Emperor, from 815 to 843AD. Since then, most societies have shied away from the destruction of images of Jesus, because, well, it’s not very popular. Until now, anyway. A leading figure in the Black Lives […]
Kids told “love has no age limit” Parents have been incensed at the publication of a learning pack for primary school children which they say “normalises paedophilia” by telling kids that ‘love has no age limit’. The pack was produced by the Diversity Role Models organisation for children aged three to 11,and sent in an email […]
Many nursing home residents with breathing difficulties were given morphine instead of oxygen Disturbing figures are coming from Sweden about the number of Covid-19 deaths amongst the elderly. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, half of the people who died in Sweden were residents of nursing homes. Sweden’s approach to the […]
If you happen to be a disinterested observer of Ireland’s decades-long abortion debate, you could be forgiven for thinking that things unfolded something like this. First, Catholic Ireland implemented the oppressive 8th Amendment, designed to inflict moral dogmas on a helpless population. Then, despite many horrifying happenings in between, the last vanguard of the patriarchy […]