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Iona Institute

Iona Institute logo
Motto	"For Religion and Society"
Founder	David Quinn
Established	January 2007 (2007-01)
Mission	Promotion of religion and socially conservative values
Director	David Quinn
Key people	Patricia Casey Breda O'Brien James Sheehan Vincent Twomey
Address	23 Merrion Square, Dublin
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Website	www.ionainstitute.ie

The Iona Institute is a conservative Catholic lobby group based in Ireland. Founded by David Quinn, a commentator on religious affairs, it was launched publicly in 2007. The psychiatrist Patricia Casey, journalist Breda O'Brien and Fr. Vincent Twomey are amongst its patrons.

The institute advocates religion and opposes same-sex marriage and supported limited civil partnerships with broad-based religious freedom protections. It posits that rising crime, family breakdown, drug abuse and other social problems are typical of a "weakened society" and that such a society will fail to recognise the importance of marriage and religion unless an evidence-based case was made. Since its foundation the institute has released a number of reports to this end.

In an article in The Irish Times by Kathy Sheridan on same-sex marriage, the institute was described as being "blessed with extremely high-profile members with priceless multimedia platforms" and "'very, very engaged' with politicians".

Campaign issues

Marriage

The Iona Institute promotes heterosexual marriage and opposes marriage equality for homosexuals in society. The institute claims that children do best when raised by a mother and father, but has been accused of misquoting the scientific literature in making those claims, with the American Psychological Association position being "... the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth". The institute has been accused of homophobia because of its opposition to the Irish government recognising same-sex marriages. The organisation has been criticised for an over-reliance on invalid interpretations of data to back their claims.

In December 2012 the institute released a video on YouTube arguing that marriage can only be between a man and a woman and that blocking gay couples from marriage was not discrimination. The video gained notoriety after the institute's YouTube account was temporarily suspended and its director, David Quinn, initially alleged censorship. The video was subsequently parodied by activists in favour of same-sex marriage.

Breakdown claims

An Iona institute report called "The Fragmenting Family" drew heavily on data from Census 2006 and said that between 1986 and 2006 marital breakdown in Ireland rose by 500%. However, the report was criticised by Fergus Finlay because it used figures from the 1986 census (before divorce was legalised in Ireland), and that the figures actually suggest that marriage breakdown had been slowing down since the 1990s. A 2010 report by the ERSI confirms that "he evidence suggests no significant upward shift in marital breakdown as a result of the advent of divorce in 1997". In 2004, Ireland had the lowest divorce rate in Europe with 7 divorces per 1,000 compared to the EU average of 21 per 1,000.

Tax

The Iona Institute’s first policy document, "Tax Individualisation: Time for a Critical Rethink", was published in 2007. Written by barrister John P Byrne, the document says that families where only one parent stayed at home were discriminated against by the current tax individualisation policy. The paper advocated an increase in the level of the Home Carer's Allowance. Subsequently, both Labour and Fine Gael launched policies on the issue which were substantially similar.

In May 2011, the Iona Institute hosted a conference entitled "Women, home and work: Towards a policy that’s fair to all families", which highlighted the social policies that it claims unfairly discriminate in favour of working women over mothers who wish to spend some or all of their working lives at home with their children.

Denominational schools

The Iona Institute says it believes that the government should continue to fund faith-based schools. As of 2010, mainstream primary schools were over 90% Roman Catholic. In March 2009, the institute commissioned a survey by polling company Red C which showed that 47% of the population wished to send their children to a catholic school.

Religious freedom

In an April 2008 conference the Iona Institute, highlighted a posited move by the European Union, which would require Ireland to scrap Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act 2000. Section 37 provides an exemption for religious schools from the equality legislation and allows them to discriminate based on religion. This section has been opposed by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation since its introduction.

The Iona Institute believes that employees should not be required to act against their Catholic beliefs by employers. For example, in April 2010, the Institute supported the stance taken by Dr Phil Boyle, a fertility doctor based in Galway, who will only provide fertility treatment to married couples because of his Catholic beliefs.

See also

Conservatism portal

References

1. Cite error: The named reference Index was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Tighe, Mark (25 October 2009). "Gay activists attack bill optout plan". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 12 August 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
3. "Personnel and Patrons". Iona Institute. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
4. http://www.ionainstitute.ie/pdfs/civilunionweb.pdf. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
5. ^ Finlay, Fergus (18 September 2007). "Broken marriages: the floodgates are a long way from bursting yet". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
6. The Benefits of Religious Practice
7. Sheridan, Kathy. "How gay marriage went mainstream", The Irish Times, 14 July 2012.
8. http://ionainstitute.com/index.php?id=75&searched=marriage+help&advsearch=oneword&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1+ajaxSearch_highlight2
9. R. Grimes, David. "Strong religious convictions are no excuse for misrepresenting research". Irish Times. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
10. Committee on Lesbian, Gay,and Bisexual Concerns, Committee on Children,Youth,and Families and the Committee on Women in Psychology (2005). "Lesbian and Gay Parenting". American Psychological Association. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
11. Grainne Healy of MarriagEquality criticises Patricia Casey's argument against same-sex marriage
12. Letter by Christopher Robsonundue weight? – discuss]
13. Noeline Blackwell; Liam Herrick; Mark Kelly (29 July 2008). "Attack on UN rights body just doesn't bear scrutiny". Irish Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
14. "Irish Catholic group in spotlight over censorship row". Al Jazeera. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
15. O'Brien, Carl (6 September 2007). "Marriage breakdown up 500% in last 20 years". The Irish Times. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
16. Lunn, Pete. "Family Figures: Family Dynamics and Family Types in Ireland, 1986-2006" (PDF). Economic and Social Research Institute. Retrieved 16 February 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
17. Sweeney, Conor (13 May 2006). "Divorce rate here lower than the rest of Europe". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
18. 'Women and work policies unfair, conference told' Irish Times 27 May 2011, 'Irish women "sold childcare myth created by EU"' Irish Examiner, 27 May 2011
19. Mainstream National Primary Schools 2010-2011 School Year. Enrolment as on 30 September 2010, Statistic delivered by Department of Education and Skills website. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
20. 'Parents demand right to pick schools for children,' Irish Independent, 25 March 2009
21. ^ 'Church takes advice on equality finding', Irish Times, Saturday, 5 April 2008
22. "Employment Equality Act 1998, Equal Status Act 2000 - Questions and Answers" (PDF). Irish National Teachers' Organisation. July 2003. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
23. "Infertility treatment refusal led to inquiry," Irish Times, 15 April 2010

External links

• http://www.ionainstitute.ie/pdfs/NI_religion_poll.pdf
• http://www.ionainstitute.ie/pdfs/Iona_Religious_knowledge_pollApr07.pdf

• 2007 establishments in the Republic of Ireland
• Think tanks established in 2007
• Conservatism in the Republic of Ireland
• Organizations that oppose same-sex marriage
• Political and economic think tanks based in Europe
• Political pressure groups of Ireland
• Think tanks based in the Republic of Ireland