Atheist Ireland has made the following submission about Freedom of Thought to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Mr Shaheed had called for inputs to a report he is compiling for the UN General Assembly on the topic....
A decade ago, on Sunday the 5th of June 2011, the final session of the 3 day World Atheist Convention in Dublin was held. At that session the Dublin Declaration was discussed and adopted. This addressed the role of secularism and the place of religion...
In Ireland parents have a constitutional right to raise their children in accordance with their philosophical convictions. The State is constitutionally obliged to respect that right in the education system. Despite this Church and State continue to ignore the findings of the courts in Ireland...
The syllabus Religious Education Course was updated in 2019. The NCCA recently removed from its website the names of the Religious Education Reference Group members who shaped the course. In the interests of transparency, we have published their names below. This Religious Education Reference Group...
The government has two different policies in relation to freedom of speech. The Department of Justice has published its policy on a way forward to protect freedom of speech in the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021. However the Department of...
In the Dail yesterday Donnchadh O’Laoghaire from Sinn Fein asked the Minister for Education about sex education in schools. The Catholic Bishops have introduced a course called Flourish to primary schools. Flourish is Catholic sex education, and the programme is to be taught alongside curriculum...
Sinn Féin supports changes in the law to ensure that inclusive sex education is delivered uniformly across all schools regardless of the religious ethos of the patron. The party has told Atheist Ireland that: “Sinn Féin share your view that, legislative reform of Relationships and...
The Irish Constitution requires the President to take a religious oath in order to take office. In a recent interview with BBC Radio Ulster the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins said that, in a new Ireland, “one should just affirm” (that is, make a...
The new RSE programme for Catholic primary schools highlights the impact religion has on State education as a result of our current school patronage model, according to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD of Fine Gael. Flourish, the relationships and sexuality education programme for junior infants to...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the Pastoral Reflection by the Bishop of Clonfert, Michael Duignan, about changes in the Catholic Church, which Patsy McGarry reports on in today’s Irish Times. Bishop Duignan says that in the past, the Church tried to “engage with and convert secular society”...