Some
Observations on
The
Family,Marriage
& Children
The National Men's Council of
Ireland seeks to protect Families, schools, and places of worship against the
cultural forces that threaten them, including biased, misandrist and offensive
media attacks on religious and parental liberty.
In keeping with this role we
monitor, on behalf of the Family men and women of Ireland, legislative changes
and state social policy for its impact on the Family based on Marriage and
especially on children.
Contrary to what the media
would have us think and what the State is disseminating through its Legal Aid
Board, Human Rights Commission and Information Services, Marriage is denoted,
in law and in the Constitution, as the position that exists whereby the Husband
is designated as the head of the household and as the authority within the
Family unit.
This position of husbands as
head of the Family and the position in law of his Wife and children as his
dependents is outlined in his essay, "The constitutional protection of
parental rights" by William Duncan in the Report of the Constitutional
Review Group, 1996. In it he refers the reader to Katherine O'Donovan, Senior
Lecturer in Law at the University of Kent, where she states in her book,
"Sexual Divisions in Law",
"Within the modern
bureaucratic state the nuclear Family of Husband, Wife and their children is
treated as a unit. The head and public representative of this unit is the
Husband, whose Wife and children are legally constituted his dependants, not
only economically but also because they are subject to his orders. His role is
to control what goes on within the Family in private."
In this private aspect of
Marriage provides for true equality between both parents. The mother has the
right of nurture by nature of the children and the husband has the right of
Custody in law so he can protect his dependent wife and children.
If the Husband does not
disentitle himself he is also guaranteed, in law, to continue to hold the right
and duty of Custody if his wife deserts him. Thisprevents mothers unilaterally
abandoning the relationship for financial benefits and prevents the state from
taking over the Custody of the children from the Husband.
We believe that the only
legitimate role of the state is to provide services to effect reconciliation
where conflict occurs. Our research has uncovered the facts that lead us to
believe that it is the State itself that is precipitating much of this conflict
and sadly the Family Support Agency are spending most of our money on
facilitating people to separate.
We can not find evidence which
shows a benefit to children of the state supporting even an 'equitable' outcome
for parents after separation as it fails to recognise the damage already done
to children, adults and society by the separation itself.
The foremost public function of
marriage is to regulate procreation and avoid incest. The prohibitions are
extensive and purposely discriminate against legitimising sexual intercourse
within certain pairings.
For a society to flourish it
must look to the procreation of the next generation.
To properly safeguard the
health of its offspring society has to regulate who has sexual intercourse with
who. The taboo of incest has served this function for hundreds of generations
and this was codified in the 1835 Marriage Act and forbids certain blood
relatives, step-relatives and relatives-in-law from getting Married ie from
legitimately having sexual intercourse.
These restrictions are
officially known as forbidden degrees of Relationship and all marriages after
1835, between persons within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or
affinity shall be absolutely null and void.
The law prohibits a man
marrying his:
* Mother * Daughter * Sister *
Father's mother * Mother's mother * Son's daughter * Daughter's daughter *
Father's sister * Mother's sister * Brother's daughter * Sister's daughter *
Father's daughter * Mother's daughter * Wife's daughter * Father's wife * Son's
wife * Father's father's wife * Mother's father's wife * Wife's father's mother
* Wife's mother's mother * Wife's son's daughter * Wife's daughter's daughter *
Son's son's wife * Daughter's son's wife
The law prohibits a woman
marrying her;
* Father * Son * Father's
father * Mother's father * Son's son * Daughter's son * Brother * Father's
brother * Mother's brother * Brother's son * Sister's son * Father's son *
Mother's son * Former husband's son * Mother's husband * Former husband's
father * Daughter's husband * Mother's mother's husband * Father's mother's
husband * Husband's father's father * Husband's mother's father * Husband's
son's son * Husband's daughter's son * Daughter's daughter's husband * Son's
daughter's husband
When one sees the extent of
this list of prohibited 'degrees' one understands more fully how the primary
function of Marriage is to regulate procreation and therefore what an absurdity
it is for people to promote Marriage between people of the same sex who
patently can not procreate.
These people show their
ignorance further by arguing that preventing people of the same sex from
marrying is a form of discrimination against them. If their argument was to be
accepted as having any merit then obviously the people who are prohibited from
marrying at present, by these degrees of prohibition, should also be allowed to
marry as they surely are far more discriminated against than same-sex couples
because, being heterosexual pairings they at least have the biological capacity
to procreate!
We have applied for funding to
the Family Support Agency to start to explain to the people the vital
importance of Marriage to their own well-being and to society as a whole and
how the Constitution protects their Family from interference from the State.
To date our request for funding
to do this has been refused. Our extensive inquiry into the law and outcomes
for children and their parents leads us to require that the Constitution should
ensure:
- That Marriage be protected
and defended from attack because it offers to children and adults the best
arrangement for a satisfying stable Family life and provides the elemental
structure required for a civilised society
- That fault in Marriage
carries a penalty because children hold their parents as role models
- That the practice of
unlicensed procreation be discouraged so as to encourage licensed procreation -
Marriage.
- That social policies, like
tax and welfare codes, be geared to promote and benefit stable Families with
children.
- That parents are respected
as the primary educators of their children with the state's function being
confined to facilitating the parent's role.
We invite readers to visit our
website www.family-men.com where they can view and download the reports and
documents we have gathered which show how the State is undermining Marriage and
what we require of the State to support Marriage. We operate an email magazine
called "Family Matters" and can be contacted through our website and
welcome contributions and affiliations from individuals and groups who wish to
join us in this most important work.
Roger Eldridge,
Chairman, National Men's Council of Ireland
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