David Quinn is an Irish social and religious commentator. From 1996 to 2003, he was the editor at ''

The Irish Catholic ''The Irish Catholic'' is a 40-page Irish weekly newspaper providing news and commentary about the Catholic Church. The newspaper is privately owned by editor-in-chief Garry O’Sullivan, managed by a private limited company and independent of ...

''. He served as the religious and social affairs correspondent for the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' from 2003 to 2005. He has often appeared on Irish current affairs programmes. Since 2007, Quinn has been the Director of the

Iona Institute Lolek CLG, operating under the business name the Iona Institute, is an Irish, socially conservative organisation that advocates the advancement and promotion of the Christian religion and its social and moral values. It has been frequently des ...

advocacy group. Quinn has campaigned against the liberalisation of Irish abortion laws, the introduction of same-sex marriage and the legalisation of assisted suicide. He is a member of the

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

branch of Legatus, which promotes Catholic values in corporate business, for those who meet stringent qualification criteria. He was educated at

St Paul's College, Raheny St Paul's College in Raheny, Dublin, Ireland, is a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys under the trusteeship of the Vincentian Fathers, formally the Congregation of the Mission. Founded in 1950, it is one of two Vincentian schools for bo ...

and studied at NIHE Dublin (now

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

), graduating with a degree in Business Studies. He is also a regular contributor to the Irish edition of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

''.

Activities

Iona Institute

In January 2007 Quinn founded the

, a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

advocacy group promoting the practice of religion and families based on traditional marriage. He is the current Director of the Iona Institute.

Abortion

Quinn supported Ireland's previous near total ban on abortion, and has appeared many times in media debates on the topic of abortion in Ireland, to defend the Eighth Amendment.

Euthanasia

Quinn has campaigned against the legalisation of

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

LGBT rights

Quinn has spoken in favour of Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which allows religious schools to discriminate, and fire employees who don't match their ethos, which can be used to fire gay teachers in Catholic schools, with the Iona Institute recommending that it be kept. He is opposed to Ireland's Gender Recognition Act for

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

people. In 2010, he was opposed to legal recognition of same-sex in the form of civil partnerships. He campaigned unsuccessfully for a No vote in the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum. In the course of the referendum campaign, Professor John A. Murphy, an Irish historian and former member of

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann ( ; ; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives). It is commonly called the Seanad or ...

, wrote to ''The Irish Times''. In his letter, he described the constitutional amendment, which permitted same-sex marriage and extended constitutional protection to families based on such marriages, as "grotesque nonsense.". Following this, Mr Quinn tweeted "Proposed change to marriage "grotesque nonsense"... Great letter by Prof John A Murphy in @IrishTimes today #MarRef". Mr Quinn was criticised for this Tweet by

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

and

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Not ...

activist Rory O'Neill (also known by his stage name, Panti Bliss), who wrote: "I can think of lots of things that are grotesque. Extending constitutional protection to all families is not one of them... I would call it 'fair', 'reasonable', 'compassionate', 'considerate', 'respectful', or even 'the very least we can do'. But not 'grotesque'."

Climate change denial

Quinn is highly outspoken in his denial of both the severity of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and the role that humans have played in perpetuating the

Climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term ''climate emergency'' have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment an ...

. Many of his objections to climate action - from

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden Social cost of carbon, social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emis ...

es to cutting emissions - focus solely on the economic impact that such actions would have. This is despite overwhelming evidence that climate action will ultimately create jobs and cost less than not taking action. In 2014 he made claims that the Irish Government would need to permit

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure inje ...

in Ireland to address the growing demand for energy, while also sharing his opinion that the 2007 IPCC report was inaccurate. The Houses of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...

subsequently published a report into the harmful effects on environment and humans that fracking could have in Ireland, which led to a law being passed in 2017 banning the practice of fracking in Ireland. In 2019, Quinn was noted for his outspoken comments targeting climate activist

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...

, using his appearances on radio stations and his social media channels to attack the youth

climate movement The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called ''climate action'') addressing the causes and Effects of climate change, impacts of climate change. Citizens and environme ...

References

External links

David Quinn's columns in the Irish Independent
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Conservatism in Ireland Daily Mail journalists Irish columnists Irish Independent people Irish newspaper editors Irish anti-abortion activists Irish Roman Catholic writers Business Post people The Wall Street Journal people Alumni of Dublin City University People educated at St Paul's College, Raheny Irish anti-same-sex-marriage activists