News

14 November 2014

Atheist Ireland and Children’s Rights Alliance promote right to education without religious discrimination

  Yesterday Michael Nugent represented Atheist Ireland at a consultation meeting of the Irish Children’s Rights Alliance, to kick-start the process of briefing the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child before it questions Ireland about its obligations under the most widely accepted...

27 October 2014

Atheist Ireland’s achievements in 2014

Atheist Ireland had a very busy and successful 2014, with breakthroughs in international lobbying at the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the OSCE annual human rights meeting; ongoing national lobbying on secular education and healthcare as well as laws including blasphemy and the Civil...

23 October 2014

Will we have to vote on blasphemy with religious oaths, Bibles and symbols in polling stations?

Last July in their Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Ireland, the UN Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and & Political Rights stated the following: “The State party should take concrete steps to amend articles 12, 31 and 34...

19 October 2014

Atheist Ireland AGM and Public Meeting, Saturday 25 October, Wynns Hotel DUblin

The 2014 Atheist Ireland AGM will take place next Saturday, 25 October, in Wynnes Hotel in Abbey Street, Dublin. The morning session, from 11am to 12.30pm, is for members only. The afternoon session, from 2pm to 4pm, is open to the public. We will then...

19 October 2014

The Atheist Ireland AGM is on Saturday. Here’s a review of our political work and breakthroughs during the past year

The 2014 Atheist Ireland AGM will take place next Saturday, 25 October, in Wynnes Hotel in Abbey Street, Dublin. We will publish details of the agenda later today. As usual, the morning session will be for members only (you can join on the day) and...

16 October 2014

Atheist Ireland’s human rights recommendations are now online on the OSCE website

Atheist Ireland’s recommendations to the OSCE human rights meeting in Warsaw last month are now available here on the OSCE website, along with the following documents: Our formal statements to the meeting, Dublin Declaration on Secularism and Religion in Public Life 5 steps to secularism...

3 October 2014

Protecting the human rights of atheists – Michael Nugent at the annual OSCE human rights meeting in Poland this week

This is video and text of Michael Nugent’s contributions to the annual OSCE human rights meeting in Warsaw, Poland, earlier this week. Contribution to Session on Discrimination The OSCE Guidelines for reviewing laws about freedom of religion or belief, stress the ‘or belief’ part of...

3 October 2014

The Catholic Church rejects teaching about religions and beliefs in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner.

In an article in the Irish Times today the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin is quoted as stating that a pluralist Ireland can only happen through “dialogue and respect”. He is also quoted as stating that “Elements in society are ‘allergic’ to mention of...

26 September 2014

Atheist Ireland Submission to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

We’ve been working for most of this week on this submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It is part of a process by which civil society groups provide input to the Committee as it prepares to question Ireland next...

15 September 2014

Religious crests on schools uniforms are symbols of discrimination

Atheist Ireland welcomes the comments of the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin regarding religious crests on school uniforms. In an article in the Sunday Independent Archbishop Michael Jackson (Anglican Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough) said there should be “scope for negotiation” around the wearing of uniforms...