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...
Yet again Ireland is to hold a Presidential election that excludes conscientious atheists as candidates, as in order to take office we would have to swear a religious oath that is in our Constitution. This would force us to dissemble about our beliefs, and breaches...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the published wording of the proposed amendment of the Constitution on around 25 October to repeal the offence of blasphemy. Atheist Ireland will be meeting this afternoon with officials in the Department of Justice, to clarify any technical or logistical questions that...
The Catholic Church has acknowledged that studying religion in school, instead of other subjects, puts students at a disadvantage, and it is trying to insist that State-run schools make all students suffer that disadvantage. This is revealed in an article in the Irish Times by...
The Education (Admissions to Schools) Bill has now passed in the Dail. From September the vast majority of schools will no longer be able to discriminate in entry on the grounds of religion. However, minority religious schools can still continue to discriminate as they still...
Joe Davis, one of Atheist Ireland’s earliest and most-loved members, died this week. For most of his life, he felt like an outsider as an atheist living in Ireland, and he was delighted to have found a like-minded community when Atheist Ireland was founded a...
Jane Donnelly, Human Rights Officer of Atheist Ireland, yesterday gave evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education about the need for objective sex education. Jane is pictured above with Cliona Saidlear of Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Aoife Neary of University of Limerick, and Debbie...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the announcement that our decade-long campaign for a referendum on the blasphemy law has been successful. We will finally be able to vote in October to remove this anachronistic, silly, and dangerous clause from our constitution. The blasphemy ban is anachronistic, because...
Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland today promoted the need for secular schools at a European Policy Conference in Limerick on Equality in Education, hosted by Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada. Jane made the case for ending all religious discrimination and privilege in Irish schools,...
This referendum sees the fall of the Catholic Berlin Wall that has kept a pluralist Irish people trapped within the laws of a Catholic Irish Constitution. Pregnant Irish women will now have the same right, to equality before the law, that gay couples have had...