Irish Examiner view: Law needs to recognise the nurturing role of fathers

A father who is married to the mother of his child has automatic guardianship rights but an unmarried father doesn’t

Treoir CEO Damien Peelo said Ireland continues to lag behind most EU countries by not affording unmarried fathers an entitlement to automatic guardianship of their children. 

In his poem ‘Digging’, Seamus Heaney recalls watching his father “stooping in rhythm through potato drills” and how this inspired him to write: “Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests./I’ll dig with it.”

Fathers — the good ones — can inspire as well as love and nurture their children.