General

7 September 2021

The Department of Education misuses public funds for in-service training of religion teachers

Atheist Ireland has written to the Minister for Education and the Comptroller and Auditor General about the misuse of public funds for in-service training of religion teachers in conjunction with Roman Catholic Diocesan Advisers. This is the letter that we have sent to the Minister....

22 August 2021

The implications for parents’ rights of the anti-abortion video shown in Tipperary school

Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to the Oireachtas joint committee on Education, about not attending Religious Instruction in schools, and the recent anti-abortion video shown in a school. We would like the Committee to take the following into account when it reaches the...

15 August 2021

The anti-abortion school video, the Catholic church, the PDST, and the Department of Education

According to an article in the Sunday independent today, a religion teacher in the Ursuline secondary school in Tipperary played an anti-abortion and unscientific video to students. This is relevant to an issue that Atheist Ireland wrote about three years ago, when we sought information...

30 July 2021

What will Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression actually do?

Obviously there should have been a transparent procedure to select Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Expression. But a more important issue is what does the job consist of, and why was the position created? A Government spokesman said that the Special...

22 July 2021

The Student and Parent Charter Bill must protect the right to not attend religious instruction

Atheist Ireland has sent the following Letter and Briefing Document for TDs and Senators regarding the Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019 and the Constitutional right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction in publicly-funded schools Dear TD/Senator, The Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill 2019...

11 July 2021

Debutante film to premiere online at Galway Film Fleadh

Debutante, a short film about religious control and coming-of-age in a hostile environment, will have its online premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on 24th July. Atheist Ireland are official partners of the film by Kamila Dydyna, a Polish filmmaker based in Dublin. In Debutante,...

2 July 2021

Protecting the freedom of conscience of secularists in the National Maternity Hospital

Our politicians are now wrestling with the issues around the National Maternity Hospital and the Sisters of Charity. Those issues are not just about access to reproductive healthcare, but also about the right to freedom of conscience. Those who seek a National Maternity Hospital free...

22 June 2021

The State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital

In a democratic republic, the State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital. It should not cede control over this essential public service to any private body, never mind to a charity associated with the Catholic church, which has an appalling record of...

12 June 2021

How the State uses misleading language to hide the purpose of religious ethos in schools

The Minister for Education, Norma Foley and the Department of Education are trying to control the language around Relationship and Sexuality Education in order to hide the influence that a catholic ethos has on the teaching of the subject. The Minister and the Department use...

12 June 2021

Atheist Freethinkers of Montreal defend Bill 21, Quebec’s recent secularism law

Atheist Freethinkers/Libres Penseurs Athées of Montreal today made an online presentation in support of Bill 21, a recent law that promotes separation of Church and State in Quebec, which is facing ongoing legal challenges. The law was passed in June 2019, entitled ‘An Act respecting...