Lolek Ltd, Trading as 'The Iona Institute'

lazygal

Does anyone know anything about this organisation? Where it is funded from and by whom? Who runs it? Why it gets such a platform? I've been digging around a bit but its very difficult to find out anything about it.

I'm also mystified as to why David Quinn appears so often representing a relatively new body which seems to be largly self-appointed and why he is allowed such a platform.

Dades

The media love to give people like these guys a platform. They're the type of squeaky wheel that helps out on slow news days.

The Iona Institute are a bit like the anti-Atheist Ireland.

Corkfeen

Dades wrote: »

The media love to give people like these guys a platform. They're the type of squeaky wheel that helps out on slow news days.

The Iona Institute are a bit like the anti-Atheist Ireland.

It still astonishes me that David Quinn actually gets published in the mainstream press. And it always tends to be absolute rubbish which he produces.

Zamboni

The seems very pro marriage. Best of luck to them.
I just don't like their attitude towards education.

dlofnep

Zamboni wrote: »

The seems very pro marriage.

What, they want to go around marrying people? What does pro-marriage mean?

Delirium

Zamboni wrote: »

The seems very pro hetero-marriage. Best of luck to them.
I just don't like their attitude towards education.

FYP

robindch

dlofnep wrote: »

What does pro-marriage mean?

Against gay marriage?

Zombrex

robindch wrote: »

Against gay marriage?

Lol, bit like how every anti-homosexual rights group in America is has "Family" in its name.

Delirium

Zombrex wrote: »

Lol, bit like how every anti-homosexual rights group in America is has "Family" in its name.

I know it's OT, but you reminded me of this.

dlofnep

robindch wrote: »

Against gay marriage?

That's not very pro-marriage of them!

lynski

David Quinn makes me more atheist (if that is possible) everytime I hear him.
'marriage is for creating children' HELLO - what about those over reproductive age? is there an ceiling on the age at which a woman can marry? does she need to show her ovulation sticks before the priest can marry her? and the poor infertile people, can they not marry? or those with erectile dysfunction? will the priest be checking for that too? Dope!
Made stuff about Yugoslavia tonight too, and that whole 'society NEEDS religon for morality'
He makes me shout at the radio or tv.

Galvasean

lynski wrote: »

David Quinn
-
makes me shout at the radio or tv.

You should read the Indo too

oceanclub

lynski wrote: »

David Quinn makes me more atheist (if that is possible) everytime I hear him.

Excellent - then Atheist Ireland's idea of planting a double agent in the Irish media is working!

(Hey, it's as good as any theory.)

P.

sbsquarepants

lynski wrote: »

David Quinn makes me more atheist (if that is possible) everytime I hear him.
'marriage is for creating children' HELLO - what about those over reproductive age? is there an ceiling on the age at which a woman can marry? does she need to show her ovulation sticks before the priest can marry her? and the poor infertile people, can they not marry? or those with erectile dysfunction? will the priest be checking for that too? Dope!
Made stuff about Yugoslavia tonight too, and that whole 'society NEEDS religon for morality'
He makes me shout at the radio or tv.

Ha. Hillarious!!
Remember kiddies, you should never show a priest your ovulation stick!!

Peregrinus

lazygal wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about this organisation? Where it is funded from and by whom? Who runs it? Why it gets such a platform? I've been digging around a bit but its very difficult to find out anything about it.

Plenty of spleen vented in the earlier answers, but not much actual information. Can anyone cast light on how the Iona Institute is funded, and by whom?

lazygal wrote: »

Does I'm also mystified as to why David Quinn appears so often representing a relatively new body which seems to be largly self-appointed and why he is allowed such a platform.

Filler. Journalists are as lazy as the next bloke, and they have column-inches or airspace to fill, and usually tight deadlines within which they must fill it. Quinn provide them with copy, or the broadcast equivalent, and given the choice between generating their own copy and taking what is handed out to them journalists will go for the latter every time.

Plus, “balance”. If you want a discussion, you need two sides represented. Quinn is an always available, and reasonably fluent, advocate for a conservative perspective which doesn’t have too many advocates.

Plus, controversy, which some media outlets like. Quinn gets up people’s noses (as we can see in this thread). In some circles, that’s considered a good thing. At least it gets talked programmes noticed and talked about.

oceanclub

Peregrinus wrote: »

Plenty of spleen vented in the earlier answers, but not much actual information. Can anyone cast light on how the Iona Institute is funded, and by whom?

This question has been asked before without any answers:

http://www.mamanpoulet.com/whos-funding-the-iona-institute/

Not sure if any of the patrons are wealthy or would chip in - I imagine Dr James Sheehan would have a few quid under the mattress:

http://www.ionainstitute.ie/personnel_patrons.php

On the other hand, DQ has been reduced to begging letters:

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

As to why Quinn gets on; Irish media is lazy and I presume he's on people's speed-dial. His arguments are poor and he deals mostly in stereotypes and buzzwords, but he's forceful, articulate and gets people to tune in just so they can throw metaphorical tomatoes at their TV.

P.

lazygal

PATRONS ~

Professor Patricia Casey: Patricia Casey is a senior consultant psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, as well as a lecturer at University College, Dublin.

Breda O'Brien: Breda O'Brien is a teacher and a columnist with The Irish Times. She is best known for her commentary on religious and social affairs.

Fergus O'Donoghue SJ: Fr O'Donoghue is a Jesuit. He is the Editor of Studies, a quarterly journals dealing with matters of religion and culture. Prior to becoming Editor of Studies, he was a lecturer in Church history at Milltown Institute.

Dr James Sheehan: James Sheehan is founder of the Blackrock, Galway Clinics and Hermitage Clinics, private medical facilities which operate according to a Catholic ethos.

Vincent Twomey: Fr Twomey is a member of the Divine Word Missionaries. He was professor of moral theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, until 2006. He is one of Ireland's foremost experts in Catholic moral theology.
List of patrons.

Interesting to see our old friend Vincent Twomey listed, given his connection to Hibernia College.

Ellis Dee

Like the poor, I'm afraid some religious nutbars will always be with us. And inevitably, some of them will be relatively well educated and even successful in various fields of endeavour. That demonstrates the power of networking, but also makes one wonder why they don't cop themselves on and recognise that few people want to go back to the kind of society we had in Ireland in the fairly recent past. It was based on the same kind of power they seek, an atmosphere in which our elected representatives danced to the tune of the unelected dictator McQuaid. It is gone, and as long we remain vigilant against them and their schemes, it will never come back.

This is an example of the distorted "facts" they like to present:



And he seems ignorant of the fact that divorce is legal:



Their wet dream:


:D

mambo

lazygal wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about this organisation? Where it is funded from and by whom? Who runs it? Why it gets such a platform? I've been digging around a bit but its very difficult to find out anything about it.

I'm also mystified as to why David Quinn appears so often representing a relatively new body which seems to be largly self-appointed and why he is allowed such a platform.

Anyone ever bothered to check out Iona's accounts
http://www.cro.ie/search/ListSubDocs.aspx?id=424940&type=C
Would they have details of where funding comes from?

Sarky

After the fun I had following #RomneyDeathRally I've decided to try and make #IonaDeathInstitute a thing.

Peregrinus

mambo wrote: »

Anyone ever bothered to check out Iona's accounts
http://www.cro.ie/search/ListSubDocs.aspx?id=424940&type=C
Would they have details of where funding comes from?

It's unlikely that they'd identify donors, if that's what your interested in, any more than a commercial company's accounts would identify the customers from whom they get their revenue. The purpose of requiring accounts to be filed under the Companies Acts is so that people can assess the solvency of the company, if they wish. For this purpose you need to know the amount of donations, subscriptions, sales or whatever, but not the identity of the individuals or entities from whom they are sourced.

Skrynesaver

According to their internet whois entry they are a front for a company by the name of Lolek Ltd , which is a Polish diminutive for Karol (JPII to you and I). Their administrative contact is one Patrick Kenny.

Looking up Lolek in the CRO indicates that they are head-quartered in 23 Merrion Sq. which appears to be the office of St. Joseph's young Priest Society, (I vaguely remember collections for this org. when I was a young fella, they nominally assist young lads who think they have a vocation in going to Maynooth and Rome for mind setting.) The CRO entry lists 23 submissions including accounts that are available for purchase if anyone feels like following up on this (if you do I'd be fascinated to hear the results)

Lolek Ltd itself seems to be based registered in a Solicitors office opposite the Pepper Canister on mount St. Crescent

mambo

The link to the CRO entry is unstable, so to find it just go to
http://www.cro.ie/search/CompanySearch.aspx
and enter company number 424940 in the "Number" field.

If someone purchases the accounts, is there any law to prevent them being published in full on the interweb?

Morag

They are also a registered charity and don't pay tax.

Turtwig

Sharrow wrote: »

They are also a registered charity and don't pay tax.

Pardon my ignorance and profanity here but what the sweet actual f*ck do they do that could be construed as charitable?

Galvasean

Jernal wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance and profanity here but what the sweet actual f*ck do they do that could be construed as charitable?

Most religious organisations benefit from 'charity' status in this country for some daft reason.

Nodin

Jernal wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance and profanity here but what the sweet actual f*ck do they do that could be construed as charitable?

...they may plan on a mass cliff jump at some stage.

Peregrinus

mambo wrote: »

The link to the CRO entry is unstable, so to find it just go to
http://www.cro.ie/search/CompanySearch.aspx
and enter company number 424940 in the "Number" field.

If someone purchases the accounts, is there any law to prevent them being published in full on the interweb?

No, publish and be damned. But I doubt that the accounts will do much to answer the questions raised in this thread.

Peregrinus

Skrynesaver wrote: »

Looking up Lolek in the CRO indicates that they are head-quartered in 23 Merrion Sq. which appears to be the office of St. Joseph's young Priest Society, (I vaguely remember collections for this org. when I was a young fella, they nominally assist young lads who think they have a vocation in going to Maynooth and Rome for mind setting.) . . .

23 Merrion Square is also the address of the Iona Institute itself, so I don't think we need to assume a link between Lolek and the St. Joseph Young Priests Society to account for Lolek's presence on the premises.

MrPudding

Galvasean wrote: »

Most religious organisations benefit from 'charity' status in this country for some daft reason.

On my phone at the moment, so can't provided links, but there is some interesting goings on in the UK about this right now.

Some religious group has been refused charitable status by the charity commission. I haven't looked at this is detail but I think it goes something like this: to gain charitable status in the UK you need to show a public benefit that your charity provides. Previously this was assumed for a religious group. In this case it has not been assumed and the commissioners can't see the public benefit of this particular group, so no charitable status.

MrP

Peregrinus

MrPudding wrote: »

On my phone at the moment, so can't provided links, but there is some interesting goings on in the UK about this right now.

Some religious group has been refused charitable status by the charity commission. I haven't looked at this is detail but I think it goes something like this: to gain charitable status in the UK you need to show a public benefit that your charity provides. Previously this was assumed for a religious group. In this case it has not been assumed and the commissioners can't see the public benefit of this particular group, so no charitable status.

MrP

The religious group concerned is the Exclusive Brethren who - as the name suggests - keep themselves to themselves, withdrawing so far as they can into self-contained and self-sufficient communities, and avoiding contamination by the world. They don’t have a problem doing routine business with outsiders but they don’t, for example, eat and drink with them. Their services are not open to non-members. If you transgress the rules of the community you may be “disfellowshipped”, in which case other Exclusive Brethren - including your family - are expected not to associate with you. You get the picture.

A while back, an EB-linked entity known as the “Preston Down Trust” applied for charitable status, and was refused. The Trust, as far as I can make out from newspaper reports, is analogous to a parish in other denominations; it owns a gospel hall in which regular Exclusive Brethren services are held. It seems they were refused on the basis that all their activities were open to members only, so the activities of the Trust couldn’t be said to confer any “public benefit”. The Trust has appealed the Charity Commissioners’ initial decision, and the hearing of that appeal is awaited.

This isn’t a completely novel position in England. Way back in 1949 the Court of Appeal held that a bequest to an convent of Carmelite nuns was not charitable because the convent was strictly enclosed, and the nuns made rather a point of not engaging with the public.

I don’t know if there is any Irish precedent on this, but the legal background is subtly different. In the UK, a purpose is charitable if it is

- (a) “for the advancement of religion” [or for a wide variety of other purposes - relief of poverty, advancement of education, advancement of arts, promotion of efficiency of the armed services(!), etc, etc] and

- (b) it is “for the public benefit”.

I.e. these are two separate requirements. They are separate requirements in Ireland too, except that there is a presumption (in s. 3(4) of the Charities Act 2009) that the advancement of religion is of public benefit “unless the contrary is proved”. So, if this matter ever comes before an Irish court, it will be up to those denying charitable status (almost certainly, the Revenue Commissioners, a Local Authority or the Charities Regulatory Authority) to establish that the religious purpose of the body concerned is not for public benefit.

FWIW, I couldn't see this causing a problem for the Iona Institute. Far from "withdrawing from the world", they engage actively with it, seeking to inform public debate and influence public opinion - which, if you're a republican, is very much for the public benefit. They're about as far from the Exclusive Brethren as you could hope to get.