Iona Institute

Iona Institute (Lolek Limited)
Iona Institute logo
Motto	"For Religion and Society"
Founder(s)	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 Ken Clarke
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Address	23 Merrion Square, Dublin
Website	www.ionainstitute.ie

The Iona Institute is a socially conservative Catholic^[1][2][3] advocacy group, sometimes described as a Catholic pressure group,^[4][5][6][7] based in Ireland. Founded by columnist David Quinn, it was launched publicly in 2007.

Iona promotes conservative Christian values and opposes both same-sex marriage and civil partnerships.^[2][8] It takes the view that crime is rising, family breakdown is increasing, and that drug abuse and other social problems are caused by fewer people obtaining opposite-sex marriages and participating in organised religion.^[9] Since its foundation the group has released a number of reports in support of its aims. The organisation has been criticised for an over-reliance on invalid interpretations of data to back their claims.

Its members (described as "patrons") are the psychiatrist Patricia Casey, columnist Breda O'Brien, Fr. Vincent Twomey, former Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Right Reverend Ken Clarke, and Jimmy Sheehan, a co-founder of Blackrock Clinic.^[10][11]

In an article in The Irish Times by Kathy Sheridan on same-sex marriage, the group was described as being "blessed with extremely high-profile members with priceless multimedia platforms" and "'very, very engaged' with politicians".^[12]

Status

The Iona Institute was incorporated in Ireland in August 2006 as a private limited company under the name Lolek Ltd.^[13] Unlike other jurisdictions (e.g., the U.K.), "institute" is not a protected term in Ireland. Senator David Norris commented on the issue by describing the group as "self-appointed".^[14]

Iona is a registered charity, qualifying under the grounds of advancement of religion. It has been criticised for failure to register with the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO),^[15] despite campaigning against the Marriage Equality Referendum.^[16][17] In April 2015, a petition to the Irish Revenue Commissioners, seeking the revocation of Iona's charitable status, attracted over 11,500 signatures within two days.^[18]

Campaign issues

Marriage

Same-sex marriage

The Iona Institute promotes heterosexual marriage and opposes extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. The group previously opposed the introduction of civil partnerships.^[8] The group says that children do best when raised by a mother and father, citing a study by Professor Douglas Allen et al. published in the journal "Demography" in 2012.^[19] This position has been challenged by groups such as the American Psychological Association, whose stated position is: "... 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".^[20][21] The Iona Institute has been accused of misrepresenting the research which underpins its position opposing same-sex marriage.^[20]

The group has been accused of homophobia because of its opposition to the Irish government's recognition of same-sex marriage.^[22][23] The organisation has been criticised for an over-reliance on invalid interpretations of data to back their claims.^[24]

In December 2012 the group released a video on YouTube saying 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 who are in favour of same-sex marriage.^[25]

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%.^[26] However, the report was criticised by Fergus Finlay because it used figures from the 1986 census (before divorce was legalised in Ireland),^[9] and that the figures actually suggest that marriage breakdown had been slowing down since the 1990s.^[9] A 2010 report by the ERSI confirms that "[t]he evidence suggests no significant upward shift in marital breakdown as a result of the advent of divorce in 1997".^[27] Statistics compiled by Eurostat show that 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.^[28]

Submission to the Constitutional Convention

In its submission to the Constitutional Convention, in opposition to same-sex marriage ^[29] the group cited a 2002 study conducted by an American NGO, Child Trends. In its submission, the organisation summarised the report stating that "Research clearly demonstrates that family structure matters for children, and the family structure that helps the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage…". Issues were subsequently raised in the Irish Senate as to the accuracy of the report and a response by Carol Emig, President of Child Trends wrote to the Convention and stated that "This Child Trends brief summarizes research conducted prior to 2002, when neither same-sex parents nor adopted parents were identified in large national surveys. Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn from this research about the well-being of children raised by same-sex partners or adoptive parents".^[30][31]

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.

In May 2011, the group hosted a conference entitled "Women, home and work: Towards a policy that’s fair to all families", which highlighted the social policies that it says 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.^[32]

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.^[33] In March 2009, the organisation commissioned a survey by polling company Red C which showed that only 47% of the population wished to send their children to a Roman Catholic school.^[34]

Religious freedom and discrimination against gays and atheists

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.^[35] 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.^[35][36]

The group believes that employees should not be required to act against their Catholic beliefs by employers. For example, in April 2010, the group 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.^[37]

Reception and impact

In an article in The Irish Times by Kathy Sheridan on same-sex marriage, the group was described as being "blessed with extremely high-profile members with priceless multimedia platforms" and "'very, very engaged' with politicians".^[12]

In an interview in Hot Press magazine, comedian Graham Norton said "I'm actually glad ... the Iona Institute exists. The great thing about extremists is that they drag everyone towards the centre." ^[38]

RTÉ payment controversy

On 11 January 2014, the Iona Institute said it was defamed when accused of homophobia by the performer and gay rights activist Rory O'Neill in an interview on the RTE Saturday Night Show.^[1][3][39] A payment of roughly €85,000 was made by RTÉ to the Iona Institute and John Waters as part of an out of court agreement. All the litigants from the Iona Institute rejected a right of reply in favour of the payment.^[40] Breda O'Brien described a right of reply offer as "completely inadequate".^[41] RTÉ's TV director said "Senior counsel was consulted and confirmed that the legal position was far from clear.".^[42]

The payment caused a controversy, with the Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte, and Senators David Norris and Ivana Bacik demanding the reasoning for the payment^[39] and in the region of 2000 people attended a protest at the payment.^[43] Senator Averil Power said seeking "to completely censor somebody else’s viewpoint by resorting to solicitors’ letters is ridiculous".^[44] MEP Paul Murphy said RTÉ's actions were censorship, and further described it as a "real attack on the freedom of speech".^[40][45] Senator Ronan Mullen said that the payments by RTÉ “were a welcome development in the cause of promoting a civil debate."^[46]

In a Dáil discussion on the issue, TDs, John Lyons, Jerry Buttimer, Michael Colreavy, Clare Daly, Luke Flanagan, Mick Wallace and Catherine Murphy also criticised the payment.^[47][48][49] The Index on Censorship commented on the incident, saying "If the Catholic right was more confident in its arguments, it wouldn't attempt to censor the other side".^[1] The Taoiseach Enda Kenny said to Buttimer that he had no plans to make RTÉ "directly accountable" to the Dáil over the payments.^[50]

References

External links

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