In the aftermath of the Mother and Baby Homes report, Seamus McKenna outlines how the Irish Catholic Church has harmed our people, our schools, and our democracy.
On the 12th of January 2021 the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters in the Republic of Ireland was published. This is a judicial report. It began its deliberations in 2015. Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland were established as places where unmarried women were brought in order to have their children, and operated at their peak in the years after independence from Britain in 1922.
The new Ireland was a Theocracy in all but name. Since the Reformation, Irish nationalism and Roman Catholicism had been closely connected. The new state was in dire straits economically, and the government saw ceding schools and hospitals to the management and control of the Catholic Church as a pragmatic step.
The Church was only too happy to cooperate in this, as it believed that both education and health were key areas in the maintenance of adherence to its faith, and for the recruitment of priests, nuns, and teaching monks. Unfortunately for Ireland, the flavour of Roman Catholicism at the time was of the most austere and rigid kind. It focussed on the primacy of original sin and human depravity, with a particular emphasis on matters of a sexual nature.
Catholic Church influence on politicians
This strongly influenced the new government, to the extent that it was able to make contraception illegal under the law from 1933 until 1978. Divorce had been outlawed under the Constitution of 1937. Abortion was such a taboo subject at the time that it was not even considered for mention in the same constitution or laws.
So strong was the hold that Catholicism had over the government that when a new minister for Foreign Affairs, Sean McBride, was appointed in 1948, he sent a message to the Pope, Pius XXII, on behalf of the whole cabinet and signed by the then Taoiseach (Prime Minister), which read:

“On the occasion of our assumption of office and our first cabinet meeting, my colleagues and myself desire to repose at the feet of Your Holiness the assurance of our filial loyalty and devotion as well as our firm resolve to be guided in all our work by the teaching of Christ and to strive for the attainment of a social order in Ireland based on Christian principles. John A. Costello. Prime Minister.”

Two months later the same Sean McBride wrote to the Catholic Primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh, to say:

“I should be very indebted to Your Grace if Your Grace would say a prayer asking God to give me the wisdom necessary to carry out my new duties well and faithfully. I trust that if at any time any matter arises upon which Your Grace feels disposed to give me advice, formally or informally, that Your Grace will not hesitate to do so. I shall always welcome advice and be entirely at Your Grace’s disposal.”

Bishops and priests had tremendous power in the early and middle decades of the 20^th century. Whatever was prescribed during a sermon at mass was obeyed unquestioningly by the population at large.
Catholic Church influence on sex
Sex was the real bugbear for this unholy alliance of church and state. Abstinence outside of marriage, and then the wholesale production of children within it, were the order of the day. Transgressors, of whom unfortunate women and girls who became pregnant without being married were the most visible, were dealt with very harshly indeed. Some of these were no more than children themselves.
The ruling orthodoxy insisted that they should be sent to the Mother and Baby Homes. The idea seemed to be that they and their children should be kept out of sight so that others would not be ‘scandalised’ by the occurrence, until such time as the children could be taken away for adoption.
In the meantime the girls were forced to work unpaid in laundries and in other similar places, were subject to all kinds of psychological cruelties, and were denied an education. Children who had been bonding with their mothers for considerable periods of time were taken away for adoption, forcefully and without the consent of the mother. One tragic element in all this was that the families of these unfortunate girls often reacted, due to the ambience of the time, by throwing them out of their homes and having nothing more to do with them. Read more…

 

Religious oaths in the Irish Constitution

In Ireland atheists, humanists and the non-religious cannot take high office because of the requirement to take a religious oath in our Constitution.
Atheist Ireland runs a ‘One Oath For All’ campaign, to enable conscientious atheists to hold the office of President, Judge, Taoiseach, or other members of the Council of State. All of these offices are out of reach of conscientious atheists.
This is because, in order to take office, we would have to swear a religious oath, the wording of which is in the Constitution, that would force us to deny our philosophical convictions, and breach our human right to freedom of conscience and belief. This also contradicts our right to freedom of conscience under Article 44.2.1 of the Constitution and effectively renders us second-class citizens.
In 2014 the UN Human Rights Committee told Ireland to replace the religious oaths for public office, and to remove the law against blasphemy. We have since removed the law against blasphemy, and we should now replace the religious oaths.
These public office-holders should instead make a single declaration of loyalty to the Irish Constitution, State, and people, that does not reveal anything about the person’s religious or nonreligious beliefs.
In October 2020 the UN Human Rights Committee have again raised this issue with Ireland. They asked:

Please report on the measures taken to ensure that the right to freedom of conscience and religious belief is fully respected, in law and in practice, on a non-discriminatory basis. In this regard, and bearing in mind the Committee’s previous recommendation (CCPR/C/IRL/CO/4, para. 21)… (b) indicate whether there have been any changes to the constitutional provisions requiring persons who take up certain senior public positions to take religious oaths

To date the Irish State has done nothing to ensure the right to freedom of conscience of the non-religious. It is simply not an issue for them. If religious people were obliged to affirm that there was no god in order to take high office in Ireland, then everybody would realise that this was a breach of the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief.
Atheist ireland will continue to campaign for the separation of Church and State. Read online…

Lobbying Bishops in ETB schools

In 2018 the Catholic Bishops lobbied the Minister for Education with regard to the decision by the Department of Education to oblige ETB schools to permit students to not attend Religious Education classes and pick another subject.

The Department of Education just caved in to the Bishops and removed the requirement of State schools to permit students to not attend
Religious Education classes and get another subject.

Religious Discrimination

The vast majority of schools in Ireland discriminate on the grounds of religion. They have a Catholic ethos and that ethos is such a part of our culture that religious discrimination goes unnoticed.
Admission policies that say that they will refuse access to a five year old if they can prove that it is essential to uphold their ethos are discriminatory. It is not legal discrimination but that does not mean that it is not discrimination on the grounds of religion.
Catholic schools ignore the recently enacted Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 that obliged them to put in their Admission Policies the arrangements for students that wish to not attend religious instruction. Anything they can do to make it more difficult for minorities to access their Constitutional rights they will do because religious discrimination is part of their ethos and reflected in our culture.
The Minister for Education, Norma Foley enables this discrimination, even though it is her responsibility to ensure that schools comply with legislation she has done nothing to rectify this situation.

Under the Irish Constitution students have a right to not attend any type of religious teaching. Church and State have undermined that right by giving it no practical application on the ground.

Students from non religious backgrounds are left sitting in the class where religious teaching takes place and no other subject is offered to them. This breaches their Constitutional rights and is religious discrimination.

We need separation of church and state in the education system. The state must stop evangelising students from non religious families and put in place statutory guidelines regarding the right to not attend any type of religious teaching.

*|YOUTUBE: [$vid=V1azKWYO-xI]|*

Calling concerned teachers

If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie