Atheist Ireland Forum

Thanks to Dugges for this:

The Iona Institute is running out of cash and want help from their e-mail database.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/12/09/spare-a-thought-this-christmas/

I particularly love the quotes from Justine McCarthy and Matt Cooper.

They say



Then the quote from Cooper comes:



Firstly I love the fact the line preceding the quote on how articulate they are makes no grammatical sense whatever. It's not even a proper sentence.

Secondly, the quote comes from this article:

http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/matt-cooper/government-must-resist-cardinals-move-to-deny-a-basic-civil-right-99581.html

Where Cooper was criticising both Sean Brady and the Iona Institute on their stance on gay marriage, but they conveniently left that bit out.

I e-mailed both Cooper and McCarthy just in case they missed it. It must warm their cockles to know they’re part of the Iona funding drive!

I'm surprised at Matt Cooper being in bed with this shower. I always thought he had some integrity.

Another journalist who has outed himself as a tool of the bishops is Pól ó Muirí of the Irish Times who has an article in the Jesuit magazine, Studies. (There's a thread running on Politics.ie at the moment).

Maybe we should compile a list of journalists and commentators who are involved in this Iona conspiracy.

Even if it did make sense I love that this is the only thing they can say about their staff. Not a single qualification mentioned - just that "they are articulate".

It reminds me of the thing that made me laugh so hard recently. A group called "Question Evolution" said of two new volunteers... "A few days ago two American Question evolution! campaign volunteers were added. One of them is a writer and the other volunteer is extremely enthusiastic".
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... st75625717

I don't think you've picked up Cooper correctly on this. If you read the article, he hardly comes across as a 'tool of the bishops'.

Here's the full quote:



The whole point of the article was to condemn Brady & Iona for their stance on gay marriage.

I e-mailed Justine McCarthy to see if she was aware of it and to ask her what article her quote came from. She replied:

So the Iona Institute put those quotes into their letter and took them out of context. Is that it?
Then they owe the two an apology and so do I - which I freely give.

Yes that's exactly what they were doing. They were quote mining and taking it out of context.

I think they'll be waiting for their apology from Iona. They knew exactly what they were doing. Not very honest though, although I doubt I could ever be surprised by them.

I'm not particularly a fan of the Iona Institute, but I don't think this is dishonest.

They make no claim that Cooper supports them in any way. In fact they describe him and McCarthy as "surprising people" to be saying positive things about the Iona Institute. Their point is that someone who is not well-disposed towards them still recognises, and says publicly, that they are "highly articulate". Since Cooper clearly isn't saying this in an attempt to support the Iona Institute, and he clearly isn't being paid to say it, this endorsement from him carries more weight than a similar endorsement coming from someone connected with, or supportive of, Iona. Hence it's in Iona's interests to draw attention to the fact that Cooper is not a particular friend of theirs, which they do.

Nothing dishonest here. If Cooper publicly says things about Iona which Iona likes to hear, they are perfectly entitled to draw attention to the fact.

I for one would like to thank the Iona Institute for their sterling contribution to the Irish Secular movement.

The Iona Institute made a huge contribution to the secular education cause by commissioning a Red C poll in 2008, which proved once and for all that the majority of Parents in Ireland don't want to put their children into Catholic schools.

Prior to this poll, everyone just assumed that catholic schools are what Irish people want, that the lack of diversity in the education system was purely a problem for Immigrants and the solution was to set up more religious schools for the various minority religious denominations.

Prior to 2008 the debate focused entirely around the lack of school places and the fact that Catholic schools were favouring catholic baptised children. The suggestion that the state shouldn't be funding religious education was shot down immediately with the assertion that the majority fo tax payers want catholic education. The suggestion that Irish people were being coerced into baptising their children so they could get them into school was ignored and David Quinn was getting away with misreading the census results to claim there were only a few hundred Atheists in the state.

The face of the debate has changed considerably since then thanks to the efforts of a lot of people and organisations. But it seems to me that the turning point was this Poll commissioned by David Quinn and the Iona Institute.

Good point Bip, maybe AI should make a donation, and be added to their list of donaters, wonder if they would accept a donation
David & Brenda might even one day say 'Atheists are good people'

What gets me is, has the church cut off funding them (as I assumed they were funded by the CCL), IONA have very slightly been critical of the CCL and do seem to be moving towards a voice of all faiths/beliefs rather than just the one.

The Iona Institute are having a public meeting tonight on 'Renewing the Church' by some American dude called George Weigel, who is described as 'one of America's leading public intellectuals'. (You seldom come across a private intellectual).

Anyway, this man was on the Pat Kenny Show this morning and was in an exchange with some religious woman over women priests and he argued that if the CC let in women as priests then it would turn into some Protestant sect. The guy was laughable and he kept referring to Pat Kenny as Peter. I reckon he emptied a few pews.

If all the Iona Inst can come up with is doddery old effers like him, then more power to them. It will be interesting to see any reports of the meeting tomorrow.

Here's a link to the Iona Institute notice: http://www.ionainstitute.ie/index.php?id=1812