Mothers and Fathers Matter

Mothers and Fathers Matter (MFM) was a campaign group in Ireland which was formed in September 2014 to oppose the Children and Family Relationships Bill.

[1] Members and spokespeople for MFM included Keith Mills, Evana Kirrane Boyle, Tom Finegan, anti-abortion campaigner Kate Bopp, ecologist Sam Shepard and David Quinn, of the Iona Institute pressure group.

[3] The group believed the legislation could, in some cases, deprive a child of a mother and father, and turned donor eggs into a commodity.

[14] On Saturday 25 April 2015, MFM hosted a conference in the Marino Institute of Education with speakers advocating the retention of the current definition of marriage.

"[18] Following this, MFM Advisory Committee member, David Quinn, tweeted "Proposed change to marriage 'grotesque nonsense' ... Great letter by Prof John A Murphy in @IrishTimes today."

Mr Quinn was criticised for this tweet by Irish LGBT rights activist Panti, who wrote: "I can think of lots of things that are grotesque.

On 24 April 2015, an Irish Times journalist, Conor Pope, filmed and confronted individuals who were removing some of the group's posters from Gardiner Street.

"[29] The independent Referendum Commission received "dozens" of complaints about the posters, and pointed to a statement on their website on the question, which reads "The Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 deals with parentage in the cases of donor–assisted births but not with surrogacy.