Our Advocacy Work

Our Advocacy Work

16 January 2020

Ten Questions for Election Candidates

Atheist Ireland is asking the political parties and candidates, who are contesting the General Election on 8th February, to answer these ten questions about secular policies. We will publish the responses to assist you in deciding who to vote for. Please ask your own local...

10 January 2020

Minister confirms that many ETB schools are denominational

UPDATE: The Department of Education has told Atheist Ireland that the Minister for Education gave incorrect information in the response to this parliamentary question. You can read about the updated situation here. The Minister for Education Joe McHugh has confirmed that a quarter of ETB...

1 January 2020

The European Convention on Human Rights protects nonreligious beliefs

The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, which is protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, also protects atheists and nonreligious philosophical convictions such as secularism. The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg in France, oversees the European Convention,...

29 December 2019

Celebrating Nic Johnson

Our good friend Nic Johnson is nearing the end of his exceptional 85 years of life. He has spent most of those years promoting atheism, humanism, and secularism with passion and integrity. Before he moved to Ireland, he campaigned for abortion rights in America, during...

11 December 2019

NCCA report avoids the question of how to deliver objective sex education

The NCCA has failed to recommend that the Education Act be amended to ensure that students get objective sex education that is not influenced by a religious school ethos. Its new report has simply described the problem of ethos, instead of addressing how to resolve...

10 December 2019

Tackling prejudice-motivated crime and protecting freedom of expression

[David Kaye is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression. His recommendations form part of this document] Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the Department of Justice’s consultation on hate crime and hate...

24 November 2019

Religion should not, and can not, be made compulsory in Irish schools

Michael Nugent was on Newstalk Radio this week, debating whether religion should be made compulsory in Irish schools. Alan Whelan of the Catholic Secondary Schools Parents Partnership argued that it should be. Religion should not be compulsory in Irish schools, because it would be a...

5 November 2019

Government blocking Objective Sex Education Bill and 50 others

The Government is using a procedure called a Money Message to block over 50 Bills that have been passed in the Dail by opposition parties, including Solidarity’s Bill to provide Objective Sex Education without interference by a school’s religious ethos. Solidarity and People Before Profit...

15 October 2019

UN to raise racial and religious discrimination in the Irish Education system

In Geneva this December, Ireland will be examined by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Last Friday, the UN CERD Committee published a List of Themes for the examination of Ireland in December. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland,...

15 October 2019

Catholic School lesson plan promotes sexist, violent, antisemitic, forged Bible passage

A lesson plan in the Catholic Grow in Love series, for sixth class students, has the students acting out the Bible story about “the woman caught in adultery.” This will be taught in about 90% of State-funded primary schools in Ireland, and teachers who want...