Legally speaking marriage is now only a friendship pact, writes David Quinn Two male friends are to marry shortly so one can avoid paying inheritance tax when the other dies. Neither of the two men is gay and the marriage will be totally legitimate in the eyes of the law. Revenue has confirmed to…
Pro-life groups have as much right to be single-issue as any other group, writes David Quinn Something I have noticed down the years is a constant retort on the part of those who oppose the right to life for the unborn, namely: “Why aren’t you pro-lifers equally concerned about the rights of the born?”…
Declan Ganley hit public consciousness with a bang during the Lisbon Treaty referendum of June 2008. He was one of the leaders of the campaign against it and he established Libertas as his campaigning organisation. It spent a lot of money on outdoor advertising. Ganley was immediately hit with a blizzard of questions about the…
A pro-life princess would be frowned on, writes David Quinn The second season of the much-praised Netflix series The Crown is being released this weekend. Over six seasons it intends looking at the entire reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reign in British history. One of the things the series is examining as…
Liberal Churches lose both members and integrity, writes David Quinn The Lutheran Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to God and avoid words like ‘Lord’ and ‘he’ and ‘father’. What Martin Luther, after whom the Lutheran Churches are obviously named, would think should be obvious. He would…
Living well is a lifelong process, but we have to know what we are aiming at, writes David Quinn In an excellent address to a conference on priestly formation in Maynooth at the weekend, Archbishop Eamon Martin made a passing reference to the volumes of work that have been written in the years after…
Separating sex and love has been a disaster for men and women, writes David Quinn Even Freud believed a certain amount of repression of our instincts was necessary to civilisation. Freud was the ‘patron saint’ of anti-repression but he saw that a certain amount of repression, or to put it another way, of ‘civilised…
Many Protestants and Catholics have found common cause in fighting for fundamental rights, the Pope should encourage this writes David Quinn Short of some unforeseen development, Pope Francis will be here next August for the World Meeting of Families. Everything he says and does will totally overshadow everything else that takes place at the…
Various experts have been appearing before the Oireachtas Committee that is considering what wording to put before the Irish people in next year’s abortion referendum. Much of the focus on the hearings to date has been on their alleged bias. More on this anon, what is far more important is what was said last week…
Today’s Fine Gael would have no place for its 1970s Taoiseach, writes David Quinn Liam Cosgrave is the first Taoiseach I can remember. My father, a newspaper man like his father before him and his son now, was thrilled. My father was Fine Gael through and through and Cosgrave’s was the first Fine Gael-led…