Politics

13 January 2013

Secular Sunday #55 – If It Ain’t Broke…

It’s time for this week’s Secular Sunday. There are a few, largely cosmetic, changes to the format, most noticeable in the e-mail edition. As promised, more substantial improvements are coming but it’s an evolving process. (As an atheist I don’t believe in Intelligent Design!) Feedback...

13 January 2013

Secular Sunday #55 – If It Ain't Broke…

It’s time for this week’s Secular Sunday. There are a few, largely cosmetic, changes to the format, most noticeable in the e-mail edition. As promised, more substantial improvements are coming but it’s an evolving process. (As an atheist I don’t believe in Intelligent Design!) Feedback...

10 January 2013

Atheist Ireland will be speaking this morning at the parliamentary hearings on abortion law

Michael Nugent will be speaking this morning at the parliamentary hearings on abortion law, along with representatives of five Irish churches. The session runs from 9.30 am to 11.30 am. There will be five-minute opening statements, followed by an hour and a half of questions...

6 January 2013

Update: Atheist Ireland invited to parliamentary hearings this week on abortion law

Update: Atheist Ireland has been invited to take part in this hearing. We would like to thank the Oireachtas Health Committee for its prompt and courteous response to our request. Atheist Ireland has asked to be invited to parliamentary hearings this week on abortion law....

27 December 2012

Cardinal Brady promotes political lobbying on abortion, while secular groups who want to solemnise marriage are politically silenced

The privileged position of the Catholic Church in Irish law was highlighted by the political campaign launched by Cardinal Sean Brady on Christmas Day, seeking to influence the forthcoming law on abortion from an explicitly theological Roman Catholic perspective. To rub in the discrimination against...

27 December 2012

Humanist Association of Ireland must choose between solemnising marriages now, and politically promoting secularism

The Humanist Association of Ireland faces a fundamental dilemma in how it responds to the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill. That dilemma is this: does the Humanist Association stop promoting the political cause of separation of church and state in order to be able to legally...

21 December 2012

Atheist Ireland asks President to test constitutionality of new marriage registration law

Atheist Ireland today sent this letter to the President of Ireland: Dear President, Yesterday the Dail passed the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill. We are asking you as President to ask your Council of State for advice on whether to send this Bill to the Supreme...

20 December 2012

Dail passes new law that discriminates by religion in marriage registration, despite TDs citing concerns raised by Atheist Ireland

The Dail today passed the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill, despite several TDs highlighting concerns raised by Atheist Ireland in our briefing document ‘Legislating for Equality In Marriage Registration.’ Atheist Ireland is now writing to the President asking him to send the Bill to the Supreme...

18 December 2012

Legislating for Equality In Marriage Registration – Atheist Ireland briefing document for TDs for debate this Thursday

Atheist Ireland today wrote to TDs asking them to amend the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill, which will be debated in the Dail this Thursday, 20 December 2012. See an earlier article on this Bill here. We also copied this letter to the Irish Human Rights...

10 December 2012

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is discriminating against atheists, and is failing to address the issue

Atheist Ireland has today emailed the following letter to the Irish Council for Civil liberties, and to the members of the Advisory Group and Research Team of the ICCL’s Anti-Discrimination Law Review Project. On 23 October Atheist Ireland discovered that the ICCL is running an...