Atheist Ireland | December 2012

30/12/2012 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #53 – Out With The Old

Welcome to the final Secular Sunday of 2012. In this issue: News Upcoming Events Blogginess (more…)

27/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

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 nonreligious citizens, this overtly political ...

27/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

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 solemnise marriages, or does it ...

23/12/2012 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #52 – Post-Apocalypse Edition

It's time for this week's Secular Sunday. In this issue: News Upcoming Events Bloggery (more…)

21/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

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 Court to test its constitutionality. ...

20/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

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 Court to test its constitutionality. ...

19/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

The letter from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties to Atheist Ireland about unconscious bias against atheists in an ICCL project

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has been responding to concerns about unconscious bias in its anti-discrimination law project, by repeatedly telling members of the public that the ICCL has sent a detailed 5-page letter to Atheist Ireland about the issue. Here is the ICCL letter, which we received on ...

18/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

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 Commission to ask them to ...

16/12/2012 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #51 – Civil Discourse

It's time for this week's Secular Sunday! In this issue: News Upcoming Events B News The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is running an Anti-Discrimination Law Review Project with an Advisory Group made up of representatives of various minority groups. In October, Atheist Ireland wrote to the ICCL pointing ...

14/12/2012 Atheist Ireland

The ICCL published, and now denies, that there is a Catholic Bishops Conference representative on its Anti-Discrimination Law project group

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has repeatedly publicly alleged this week that Atheist Ireland has made a number of material inaccuracies in our letters to them about unconscious bias against atheists in their Anti-Discrimination Law project. Today the ICCL publicly posted on its Facebook page that: “The erroneous notion ...