Atheist Ireland is asking the political parties and candidates, who are contesting the General Election on 29th November, to answer these ten questions about secular policies. We will publish the The post Atheist Ireland questions for general election candidates 2024 appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

Atheist Ireland is taking a case to the courts in relation to the education system, and you can help if your family has been directly affected by religious discrimination in The post How you can help Atheist Ireland’s court case on the right to not attend religion in schools appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

It is the duty of the Minister for Education, Norma Foley under Section 30-2(e) of the Education Act 1998 to ensure that students do not attend any subject that is The post Oireachtas and Minister abdicate their duty to vindicate right to not attend religious instruction appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

Why is curriculum Religious Education a ‘core subject’ in Irish schools? Catholic and ETB schools say it is in order to uphold the religious ethos of the school. But is The post Why must schools make Religious Education a core subject in order to protect their religious ethos? appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

When parents seek to remove their child from religious instruction, many schools ignore their constitutional and legal duty to respect this right, and their legal duty to do this without The post By law, schools must not shorten the school day for children who do not attend religious instruction appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

The Constitutional rights that were meant to protect Irish families from religious teaching in publicly funded schools are simply ignored, and have been undermined over the years. Not only do The post Religious teaching in publicly funded schools – a clash of educational ideologies appeared first on Atheist Ireland ..read more

Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the NCCA Consultation on the Draft Primary Curriculum Specifications. Introduction This submission focuses on two areas of the draft specifications: Social and Environmental Education (Geography and History) Wellbeing (Physical Education and Social, Personal and Health Education) Both of these areas include items relevant to education about religion, beliefs, and ethics. It is those items that we are focusing on. Contents 1. Recommendations 2. Constitutional rights of parents and their children 3. Freedom of conscience in the Irish Constit ..read more

Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to the Minister for Justice, Taoiseach, Tanaiste, and Minister for Equality regarding the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill and the recent Sokolovskiy v. Russia case at the European Court of Human Rights. Dear Ministers and Taoiseach, We would like to draw your attention to the above recent case regarding Article 10, freedom of expression at the European Court of human rights. (We attach an English translation of the judgment, which was published in French). In light of this case we ask you to l ..read more

In February 2018 the School Governance Section of the Dept of Education issued Circular Letter 0013/2018. Circular Letters are ‘policy’; the purpose of the policy was to oblige ETBs to offer students, who are not taking religion, another subject. At the time we were told by the Department that the purpose of the Circular Letter was to change the culture of the ETBs in relation to religion. In October 2018 the School Governance Section of the Dept of Education issued another Circular Letter 0062/2018, clarifying the previous one issued in February. They removed the obligation on ETBs to offer s ..read more

The state pays out approx 10 million a year for mainly catholic chaplains in ETB schools (there are some COI chaplains). Chaplains are paid by the state to help Catholic parents with the religious formation of their children. We know this because there was a court case in 1998 about this specific issue (Campaign to Separate Church & State v Minister for Education 1998). There is Catholic religious formation in ETB schools and colleges. To claim otherwise is to ignore the fact that the state pays chaplains approximately €10 million per year to assist Catholic parents with the religious form ..read more