The Catholic Bishops are complaining that applicants for two new medical posts at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin will be required to carry out elective abortions if appointed. The Bishops say that this “totally undermines the whole concept of freedom of conscience which was...
Atheist Ireland has published a major new report titled How State Schools Break The Rules. It explains how the Department of Education, the ETBs, and the NCCA are breaching Constitutional and Human Rights and the IHREC Act in Religious Education in ETB schools. We will...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the Oireachtas Education Committee report on Objective Sex Education. The report has recommended, as Atheist Ireland asked it to do, that the law must be changed to remove the role of ethos as a barrier to the objective and factual delivery of...
Last night RTE’s Prime Time reported on Scientology in Ireland. Scientology has set up its European hub in Firhouse in Dublin. Scientology says it is a modern religion, which addresses spirituality in a practical way. It says that it brings new solutions which do not...
The Irish Times reports that Pope Francis is concerned about what he describes as the “serious issue” of homosexuality and that being gay is a “fashion” to which the clergy is susceptible. He has said that “gay people should not be accepted into ministry”. It...
Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland will be meeting the Department of Education to follow up on issues raised at our last meeting. At that meeting, the Department confirmed to us that students can in fact opt...
At a meeting today with Atheist Ireland, the Department of Education has confirmed that all students can still opt out of the NCCA State course in religious education in ETB schools, despite the recent Circular Letter suggesting the opposite. However, ETB schools will not be...
We were shocked to read a report in the Irish Times this morning that the Department of Education may be considering a new Circular Letter to ETB schools that would force students to attend the State course in Religious Education against their conscience, contrary to...
While Pope Francis was speaking in Croke Park in Dublin, Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland was making the case for a secular education system free from Catholic Church influence. Jane was speaking at a public meeting convened by People Before Profit, about Separation of Church...
In the sitcom Dad’s Army, Private Pike is famous for blurting out the truth at inconvenient times, to the annoyance of Captain Mainwaring. In one scene, a German U-Boat Captain asks Pike what his name is. Mainwaring interjects by barking: ‘Don’t tell him, Pike!’ Bishop...