Understanding plunging Nordic fertility For years, the Nordic countries had healthy birthrates that were the envy of Europe, helped in part by some of the most generous family policies in the world. No longer. A look at how cultural forces can overpower pronatal policy. 🧵!

A new study shows that during the pandemic there was little pushback from the Churches against the worst restrictions on public worship in the whole of Europe. But one religious newspaper did raise its voice in objection, namely The Irish Catholic. ionainstitute.ie/the-newspaper-…

What is the justification for including only Catholic schools in this inquiry? If Britain did that we would instantly say it was sectarian. Simon Harris TD Micheál Martin Norma Foley T.D rte.ie/news/2024/0903…

A good question from a former Irish diplomat about the membership of the UN Security Council. Michael Clarke

I notice in the new NCCA SPHE curriculum for 16-18 year-olds, there is no mention at all of marriage, and only scant mention of the family, or love, or parents. Very odd considering the curriculum deals with relationships.

Athena Swan has not delivered what it originally set out to, and instead has become diverted into nonsense that university administrators feel obliged to sign up to.

Report after report, both Irish and international shows that the worst period for the horrendous crime of clerical child abuse was the 1970s. Why this should be is not clear, but it is the constant pattern. (The table is from the Scoping Report).

Well, that textbook with the absolutely mad caricature of an Irish family has been withdrawn. (By the way, that wasn't the only problem with the textbook, it was all-in on gender ideology, like a lot of other SPHE textbooks). extra.ie/2024/09/04/new…

The new abuse report shows once again that cases hit this incredible peak in the 1970s. That is the pattern in the Church in every country investigated.

1,800 Spiritan priests (the order that runs Blackrock College etc) have served since 1930. A total of 49 have now been accused of abuse. 48 of these names were known in 2012 when a previous investigation was conducted by the Church's own child protection office.

The SPHE programme now being replaced aimed to promote "relationship skills in marriage and other committed relationships". This has been dropped. Why?Very, very strange. ionainstitute.ie/the-strange-si…

As usual the question is, what do parents want? If they want faith formation taken out of schools, then so be it, but if they don't then Ivana Bacik and co have no right to enforce that.

From the report of the Scoping inquiry: "In our view, an approach that excludes from consideration all other schools where historical sexual abuse may have occurred would be arbitrary and difficult to justify. We recommend, therefore, that consideration be given to extending the

Parents will still be lining up to send their children to Blackrock College etc. They would not do that unless they felt those schools are safe.