News

10 March 2019

How State Schools Break The Rules – New Report from Atheist Ireland

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...

20 February 2019

Blasphemy Repeal Bill 2019 forwarded to Attorney General for formal drafting

The Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, has advised Atheist Ireland that the Bill designed to give legal effect to the outcome of last year’s blasphemy referendum has been forwarded from the Department of Justice to the Office of the Attorney General for formal Drafting. It...

29 January 2019

Atheist Ireland welcomes Education Committee report supporting objective sex education

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...

20 January 2019

The Irish Times is correct to warn against weakening the laws that regulate political funding

The Irish Times (editorial, Jan 16th) is correct to warn that allowing foreign political donations could have negative consequences for our democracy. It is also correct to highlight the similarities between funding election campaigns and funding political lobbying between elections. Atheist Ireland is a small...

15 January 2019

We should challenge, not respect, Ethiopian religious customs that are unjust to women and LGBT people

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended his visit to a male-only Ethiopian Orthodox monastery, while leaving the women members of the Irish delegation outside, by saying it was appropriate to respect the rules and customs of different cultures and religions in their country. The Irish delegation included...

12 January 2019

Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and others must swear a religious oath to remain in office

One of Atheist Ireland’s main campaigns this year is One Oath For All, a campaign to remove from the Constitution the religious oath that Presidents, Judges, and members of the Council of State must swear. Many people are unaware that this oath encompasses the Taoiseach,...

19 December 2018

Children must respect the codes of conduct of Scientology in Irish Community National Schools

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...

3 December 2018

Irish schools require children to respect Vatican codes of conduct that discriminate against gay people

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...

26 November 2018

The Irish Defence Forces Evangelise Military Personnel

The Irish Defence Forces operate a website for the Military Chaplaincy, which provides a service that is legally and constitutionally obliged to address those of all faiths and none with full equality. Unfortunately, it does not. Instead, this website provides for State-funded evangelisation of Catholicism...

19 November 2018

Chaplains in the Irish Defence Forces

Atheist Ireland has written the letter below to Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Paul Kehoe TD.   Dear Minister Kehoe, Following some complaints that we have received from current and former members of the Irish Defence Forces, Atheist Ireland has recently completed...