Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland

6 May 2020

Homework Pass ruling has lessons for the state, school boards, principals, and teachers

A recent case at the Workplace Relations Commission has found that Yellow Furze National School in Meath discriminated on religious grounds against a family that had no religious belief. The school claimed at the WRC that the case was unfounded. Most schools are unable to...

1 May 2020

WRC rules that ‘homework pass for mass’ is religious discrimination

The Workplace Relations Commission has found that Yellow Furze National School in Meath discriminated on religious grounds against a family, in a case that Atheist Ireland raised publicly last September. The school is under Catholic patronage, and it gave homework passes to children who attended...

29 April 2020

Catholic schools defying new law by not including opt-out details in admissions policies

The Catholic Church is still trying to undermine the right of parents to opt their children out of religion classes. They are now trying to ensure that the arrangements for opting out are kept secret and that parents are not consulted. This is contrary to...

25 April 2020

How can a five-year-old child undermine a school’s religious ethos?

Despite what some people think, the Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018 has not removed the religious discrimination in access to schools in Ireland. Minority faith primary schools and any religious secondary school can still give preference to co-religionists. And Catholic schools can still refuse...

15 April 2020

Understanding Freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s proposed framework for government aims to create a new social contract. This should treat everybody equally regardless of their religious or nonreligious beliefs, and without giving privilege to any religious or atheist organisations. To do this, we must reconsider our...

15 April 2020

FF and FG’s new social contract must be based on equal freedom of religion and belief

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s proposed framework for government aims to create new, credible, quality-of-life measures of individual and societal wellbeing and progress. They are correct to focus on economic recovery, healthcare, housing, education, climate action, young people, and global citizenship. They are also correct...

14 April 2020

Support today’s livestream for jailed Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi

Some of us have our freedoms temporarily constrained in order to protect people from the Covid pandemic. We should consider ourselves lucky compared to Soheil Arabi. Soheil is a 34-year-old Iranian blogger with a young daughter. He has been jailed and tortured since his arrest...

9 April 2020

Irish law on solemnising marriages still discriminates against atheists

A recent article by Hemant Mehta tells us that atheists can now solemnise marriages in Michigan after the State dropped its opposition. Up to now Michigan only permitted religious solemnisers and denied the authority to solemnise marriages to atheists. Meanwhile, the Irish law on solemnising...

22 March 2020

Take care of yourself and others during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how we live until further notice. The best way to take care of yourself and others is to act on reliable, evidence-based information. Within Ireland, the HSE website has reliable information including symptoms and causes, protecting yourself and others, specific...

8 March 2020

Atheist Ireland submission to Citizens Assembly on Gender Equality

Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the Citizens Assembly on Gender Equality. We have focused on three issues that have a secular relevance, rather than replicating issues that are already on the agenda of the Assembly. Introduction Atheist Ireland is an advocacy group....