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Editorial
The religion question in this April’s census
 Happy new year! The next Irish census will take place on 3 April. Atheist Ireland will be running a campaign asking people to answer the flawed religion question accurately, based on your current religious or nonreligious beliefs not your childhood religion or cultural identity.
After Atheist Ireland and others met with the Census Office, the religion question has been slightly changed, but it is still flawed. This minimalist change will mask, but not stop, the relentless increase in the number of nonreligious people in Ireland.
The old question was ‘What is your religion?’ The new question will be ‘What is your religion, if any?’ Also in the new question ‘No religion’ will be the first option of the check boxes, instead of the last one. This means that people are more likely to see it before they have ticked another check-box based on their childhood religion or cultural identity.
Atheist Ireland is also campaigning to protect the Constitutional rights of atheist families in Irish schools. Article 44.2.1 of the Constitution protects the right to freedom of conscience, and Article 44.2.4 protects the right to attend state-funded schools without attending religious instruction.
The State has consistently protected the rights of Catholic schools, while ignoring the need to balance that right with the Constitutional right of atheist and minority faith parents. Atheist Ireland has raised this issue in complaints to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee about the misuse of public funds regarding religious instruction in schools.
As always, if you would like to help us to continue this work, please join Atheist Ireland as a member. We are a voluntary body with no paid staff, and we depend on our members to continue our work. You can join here.
– Secular Sunday Editorial Team
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Éire Aindiach
Éire Aindiach
Chun ár gcuid feachtais a leathnú agus a neartú, tá sé beartaithe ag Éire Aindiach níos mó úsáid a bhaint as an Ghaeilge.
Ba mhaith linn meitheal a eagrú, chun cuidiú le:
- Polasaithe agus feachtais Éire Aindiach a phlé ar an raidió nó ar an teilifís
- Cuidiú le doiciméid ghaeilge a scríobh
- Bualadh le polaiteoirí chun stocaireacht a dhéanamh
Táimid i mbun aistriúcháin a dhéanamh ar dhoiciméid polasaí faoi láthair, agus teastaíonn cabhair uainn le aistriúchán agus profáil. Más maith leat bheith páirteach san iarracht seo, cur ríomhphost chugainn ag gaeilge@atheist.ie.
English translation:
To broaden and strengthen our campaigns, Atheist Ireland have undertaken to make more use of the Irish language.
We are looking to assemble a group of volunteers, to help with:
- Discussing our policies and campaigns on radio or tv
- Helping to write documents in Irish
- Meeting with politicians to lobby them
We are in the process of translating policy documents at the moment, and we need some help with translating and proofreading. If you would like to assist with this effort, please email us at gaeilge@atheist.ie.
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Atheist Ireland News
The next Irish census this April will confirm the rise of the nonreligious
The next Irish census will take place on 3 April 2022. It was postponed from last year due to the Covid pandemic. Atheist Ireland will be running a campaign asking people to answer the flawed religion question accurately, based on your current religious or nonreligious beliefs not your childhood religion or cultural identity.
After Atheist Ireland and others met with the Census Office, the religion question has been slightly changed, but it is still flawed. This minimalist change will mask, but not stop, the relentless increase in the number of nonreligious people in Ireland.
During the consultation process, the Census office argued for a minimalist approach to changing the religion question, because they said it was important to compare results from census to census. Atheist Ireland had argued that it was more important to get accurate results, rather than to be able to compare one set of flawed results with another.
The old question was ‘What is your religion?’ That was a leading question, that resulted in a higher figure for religion, by assuming that the respondent is a member of a religion. The new question will be ‘What is your religion, if any?’ This is slightly better, but is still a leading question, as it assumes that religion is the default, and that not having one is an aberration.
The new question is also slightly better than the old one, in that ‘No religion’ will be the first option of the check boxes, instead of the last one. This means that people are more likely to see it before they have ticked the check-box based on their childhood religion or cultural identity.
But Atheist Ireland had argued for the check-boxes to be removed entirely, and for a return to the write-in answer that had been used for a century until the check-boxes were introduced in 2002, and given to the five highest religions from the previous census.
These check-boxes overstate those religions that are given a check-box. Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Methodist all dropped consistently from the 1960s to the 1990s. When given check-boxes, they all increased in 2002. Methodist doubled when given the check-box in 2002, then halved when it was taken away in 2011.
Atheist Ireland will continue to publicise the flaws in the census question on religion, despite the new question being slightly better than the old one. We are confident that, despite these flaws, the 2022 census will yet again see a significant rise in the number of nonreligious people in Ireland.
We would like to pay tribute here to the late Nic Johnson, a member of both Atheist Ireland and the HAI, who worked tirelessly on this issue for many years. He is pictured above during the consultation process with the Census Office. Read online…
The Constitutional rights of atheist families in Irish schools
 Article 44.2.1 of the Constitution protects the right to freedom of conscience. This right is not just confined to a religious conscience. Atheists, humanists, and secular parents have exactly the same Constitutional rights with regard to our philosophical convictions as religious parents have with regard to their religious beliefs.
In the High Court in 2011, in the case of AB v Children’s Hospital Temple Street & CD & EF, Justice Hogan stated that:“35. There is thus no doubt at all but that parents have the constitutional right to raise their children by reference to their own religious and philosophical views.”
“27. Along with the guarantee of free speech in Article 40.6.i, Article 44.2.1 guarantees
freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion. Taken together, these constitutional
provisions ensure that, subject to limited exceptions, all citizens have complete freedom of
philosophical and religious thought, along with the freedom to speak their mind and to say
what they please in all such matters….”
Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution protects the right to attend state-funded schools without attending religious instruction. The purpose of this is to ensure that the State, in its decisions on funding of schools, safeguards the rights of atheists and religious minorities in schools.
The Supreme Court has said, in the 1998 Campaign case, that Article 42.1 (parents’ rights regarding the education of their children) must be read in the context of Article 44.2.4 (the right to not attend religious instruction).
The Education Act obliges the Minister for Education to leave reasonable instruction time for subjects relating to or arising from the characteristic spirit (ethos) of the school. Schools use this time for either Religious Instruction or other courses based on their ethos.
The State has consistently protected the right of schools to do this. However, the State has consistently ignored the need to balance that right with the Constitutional right of atheist and minority faith parents to protect their children from being indoctrinated by religion against their conscience.
This is among the issues that Atheist Ireland has raised in complaints to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee about the misuse of public funds regarding religious instruction in schools. We will continue to lobby on this and to highlight the outcomes of our lobbying. Read online…
Know your rights
 The European Court has found that differentiated teaching in Religious Education classes was not in accordance with the right of parents to respect for their convictions in relation to Article 8 and 9 of the convention. The right to opt out of religion classes applied.
In Ireland one of the main aims of syllabus Religious Education is to develop values in students to enable them to see the relevance of religion to their lives. The content of syllabus and its aims undermine the right of non religious parents in relation to the moral formation of their children, therefore the right to not attend applies.
In addition just like syllabus Relationship and sexuality education syllabus, syllabus Religious Education is taught through the ethos of schools.
As the majority of second level schools are under the patronage of the Catholic Church it is religious education taught through the lens of the Catholic Church.
Students have a constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in publicly funded schools. It is not up to the state, the NCCA, schools or religion teachers to decide for parents what is or is not against their conscience.
The Supreme Court has said that the right of parents in relation to the religious and moral education of their children must be read in the context of Article 44.2.4 – the right to not attend religious instruction.
Syllabus RE is Religious instruction and comes under Article 44.2.4.
Church and State are trying to redefine key constitutional rights in order to undermine the right of parents in relation to the religious and moral education and formation of their children.
Discrimination in Schools?
The state provides funding ‘for’ private non fee charging schools. It also provides funding ‘for’ private fee charging schools.
Minority religious non fee charging schools at primary and second level can legally discriminate in access. All non fee charging schools and fee charging schools can integrate their ethos into secular subjects.
At second level private non fee charging schools can discriminate in access (the majority).
Students from minority backgrounds in fee paying and non fee paying private schools are left sitting in the class during religious instruction notwithstanding the fact that they have a constitutional right to not attend. No supervision is offered and students do not have access to another subject. This is not an issue for any schools at primary or second level. They have no problems discriminating against minorities in their schools and refuse to allocate state funds to supervision outside the classroom or another subject. State funds were allocated on the basis that students have a right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction.
The fee charging religious schools schools are now claiming that they are being discriminated against because the non fee charging schools (the majority are religious) have access to more state funding than they do.
You couldn’t make this up!
This is a comment on this news article.Private schools say exclusion from State grants is ‘discriminatory’ Representative body for fee-charging sector seeks independent review of funding model
Complaint to Comptroller & Auditor General about the misuse of public funds by the Dept of Education
Calling concerned teachers
If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie
List of Atheist Ireland Submissions
Buy this book “Is My Family Odd About Gods?”
**Schools Special Offer**
Atheist Ireland are offering the book ‘Is my family odd about gods‘ free (excluding postage and packaging). This means that you can get this book for the total price of 10 euro. This offer is aimed at families with school going children, who would like to read this book. This offer is limited to one book per family unit and for postage within Ireland only. Read more…
Have you noticed that your school and your teachers may tell you one thing about religion, while some of your friends and family may have different ideas about god?
If you think that this is a little odd, then this book is for you. Buy this book here.
Lessons about Atheism
Atheist Ireland has published a set of free lesson plans about atheism for children aged 8 and up. We welcome feedback, which we will use to develop the lessons. You can download the lesson plans here
 Be Good without Gods
Atheist Ireland ‘Good Without Gods’ Kiva team members have made loans of $35,250 to 1223 entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can join the team here. Before you chose a loan, make sure you do not support religious groups. You can check the loan partner’s social and secular rating here.
Notme.ie
Atheist Ireland’s ‘notme.ie‘ is a place where people can publicly renounce the religion of their childhood. Currently there are 1890 symbolic defections. Many share their reasons for making a public symbolic defection which you can read here.
Petition on Schools Equality PACT
Atheist Ireland currently runs one petition – The Schools Equality PACT. This seeks to reform religious discrimination in state-funded schools. Currently this stands at 4,103 Help us reach it’s target of 5000. Please sign and share this petition if you haven’t already done so. Thank you.
Tell us what you think
Have you any feedback that you would like to give us on the Secular Sunday newsletter. What are we getting right? What could we improve on? Is there something you would like to see included? Drop us an email at secularsunday@atheist.ie.
Please consider joining or re-joining Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is an entirely volunteer run organisation. We receive no grants or government funding to continue our campaign work. We rely entirely on membership fess and donations.
Annual membership is nominal; €25 waged, €10 unwaged/student and €40 for family membership. Please consider becoming a member. Membership means:
- You can help to build an ethical and secular Ireland.
- You have a say in determining policy and electing officers.
- You can attend members meetings and our AGM.
- You will have access to our members only Facebook group
- Your membership fee will go towards supporting our many campaigns.
You can join Atheist Ireland here.
Thank you for your continued support
Atheist Ireland Committee
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Opinion and Media
Material on atheism, secularism, human rights,politics,science etc. collected from media and the blogosphere from Ireland and beyond; used without permission, compensation, liability, guarantee or implied endorsement. We aim to include a variety of diverse opinions and viewpoints.
Blogs & Opinions
National
How the two Churches helped divide the North
By TP OMahony
The role of the Christian churches in the disuniting of Ireland was as significant as it was inglorious. Both the Catholic and Protestant clerical establishments helped to promote and reinforce “green” and “orange” versions of sectarianism. The deep communal cleavage caused by this meant that even before the passing of the Government of Ireland Act in 1920 (providing for two parliaments in Ireland), the disunity was cemented even before the formal imposition of Partition. Read more…
International
Trial begins for abortion protesters accused of interfering with religious act in church
By Agnieszka Wądołowska
The trial has begun of 32 people who protested in a church against Poland’s near-total ban on abortion. If found guilty of “malicious interference with a public performance of a religious act”, which is a crime in Poland, they could face up to two years in prison. Read more…
Indian Muslims got ‘less religious’ since 2016, shows CSDS study. 44% reported discrimination
By Nikhil Rampal
New Delhi: Young Muslims “stand somewhat apart” from their Hindu, Sikh, and Christian cohorts as they are the only community to have recorded a significant decline in religious activities over the last five years, according to a survey report released earlier this month. Read more…
Fears for thousands of children stuck in unregistered illegal schools
By Tom Ball
Hundreds of unregistered and illegal schools known to inspectors are only the “tip of the iceberg”, according to the Ofsted director charged with clamping down on the problem. Unregistered schools operate within a legal loophole that prevents them from being inspected like other schools, which campaigners say makes them a haven for physical and sexual abuse. Read more…
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