Atheist Ireland | April 2017

30/04/2017 Ashling O'Brien

Secular Sunday #279 ‘join our campaign to separate Church and State’

This week’s Secular Sunday can be found here. To avoid missing out, sign up here to receive Secular Sunday by email

27/04/2017 Atheist Ireland

Irish nun excommunicated for sanctioning an abortion

An Irish nun was excommunicated after she sanctioned an abortion to save a woman's life in a Catholic hospital in Arizona in 2009. She was later allowed to return to the Church if she went to confession and resigned her position in the hospital. The local Bishop also said that ...

23/04/2017 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #278 ‘Nuns! reverse, reverse, reverse’

This week’s Secular Sunday can be found here. To avoid missing out, sign up here to receive Secular Sunday by email

22/04/2017 Atheist Ireland

Vatican requires nuns to manage hospital assets in accordance with Canon Law

The Irish State is planning to give a €300 million National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity. The Minister for Health has said that “only doctors and other healthcare professionals would make decisions about women’s health in the planned new Hospital.” However, the Sisters of Charity are a Catholic ...

20/04/2017 Atheist Ireland

The new National Maternity Hospital board and the Vatican Charter for Healthcare Workers

Much of the commentary about the new National Maternity Hospital has focussed on money. It is of course outrageous that the State would gift a brand new hospital, worth hundred of millions of euro, to a religious order which still owes millions of euro to the redress scheme for those it abused. ...

19/04/2017 Ashling O'Brien

Atheist Ireland proud partner of the March for Science, Ireland

Atheist Ireland joins the March for Science. Atheist Ireland is proud to join the Irish Cancer Society, Irish Society for Immunology, Trinity College Dublin Student Union, Cool Planet Experience, Star Trek Éire, Irish Federation of University Teachers and International Consortium of Research Associations as partners of the March for Science, Ireland. The ...

18/04/2017 John Hamill

“Medical Ethics” at the Mater Hospital

In the context of the ongoing controversy about the new National Maternity Hospital being given to a religious order, it is instructive to look at what it means for State-funded public services to be run by private faith-based organisations. The Mater Hospital is run by the Sisters of Mercy and ...

16/04/2017 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #277 ‘Census results, Dáil prayer and the ‘Good’ Friday alcohol ban’

This week’s Secular Sunday can be found here. To avoid missing out, sign up here to receive Secular Sunday by email

13/04/2017 Atheist Ireland

The Religious Test to be Ceann Comhairle

The Ceann Comhairle of the Dail, Sean O Fearghail TD, has replied to Atheist Ireland’s letter about the Dail prayer. He has confirmed that the proposal that was scheduled for Tuesday will now instead be put to the house on its return after the Easter recess. He has said that ...

10/04/2017 Atheist Ireland

Ask your TDs today to stop forcing parliamentarians to pray to ‘Christ Our Lord’

Update: following lobbying from Atheist Ireland and opposition from secular TDs, the Dail business committee decided today to postpone this vote until 2nd May, in order to allow time for debate. Please continue to contact your TDs about this between now and then. At 2.30 pm this Tuesday, 11 April, ...