Education

29 April 2021

Teachers should not have to challenge Catholic school ethos to deliver objective Sex Education

The Vice Chair of the INTO, Joe McKeown, said yesterday that the INTO would take steps to make sure that teachers are not disciplined or punished for a failure to use the Catholic sex education programme Flourish in schools. And Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said today...

27 April 2021

Objective versus Catholic Sex Education – the Background

Atheist Ireland has been working for several years on the issue of objective versus Catholic sex education in Irish schools. If you want to understand more about the issue, you can read our submissions and articles linked below. The Department of Education supports the integration...

22 April 2021

Catholic Bishops circle the croziers with new Sex and Morality Education course

As the NCCA is updating the syllabus for Social, Personal, and Health Education (SPHE), the Catholic Bishops are circling the croziers by introducing a new course called ‘Flourish’ in publicly funded national schools. Flourish is officially Relationship and Sex Education, and in practice is Catholic...

28 March 2021

Atheist Ireland, Evangelical Alliance, and Ahmadiyya Muslims ask UN to strengthen secularism in Ireland

Ireland will be questioned this year by the United Nations Human Rights Council under a process called the Universal Periodic Review. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, have made this joint submission to UN on freedom of...

14 February 2021

How unintended religious discrimination in Irish schools has evolved since 1965

Over the past fifty years, the Irish education system has evolved to include religious discrimination that was not intended to be there. The influence of the Catholic Church has undermined attempts by politicians to respect and balance the Constitutional rights of all families. Please lobby...

26 January 2021

Religious discrimination in the hiring of Chaplains in ETB schools

Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland have jointly written to the Minister for Education about religious discrimination in the hiring of Chaplains in ETB schools. The WRC found in a recent case that a Designated ETB Community...

22 January 2021

How the Irish Catholic Church has harmed our people, our schools, and our democracy

In the aftermath of the Mother and Baby Homes report, Seamus McKenna outlines how the Irish Catholic Church has harmed our people, our schools, and our democracy. On the 12th of January 2021 the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related...

3 January 2021

Irish constitution gives parents more rights than human rights laws do

Irish parents have more rights in relation to the education of their children under the Irish Constitution than they have under human rights law. The United Nations and the Council of Europe constantly raise the issue of the failure of the Irish State to protect...

29 December 2020

Schools and teachers should not ask students about their beliefs

Irish schools and teachers regularly breach the right to freedom of religion and belief of students and families. Teachers are not trained to understand the practical application of the right to freedom of religion and belief, or the positive and negative aspects of it. Freedom...

10 December 2020

UN to again raise secular education and religious oaths with Ireland

The UN Human Rights Committee has raised the Irish education system and religious oaths in its List of Issues under the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights. They raised the right to freedom of religion and belief in the Irish Education system. Atheist Ireland...