1. Introduction
Irish Atheists, Evangelicals and Ahmadiyya Muslims are united in a campaign for Secularism and Human Rights. While we have different world views, and different emphases in policies, we all agree that each person should be treated with respect, our right to hold our beliefs should be treated with respect, States should treat us all equally before the law by remaining neutral between religious and nonreligious beliefs.
Parts of our campaign are:

• We will promote the fundamental human rights of freedom of conscience, religion and belief, equality before the law, and freedom from discrimination for all.
• We will promote these human rights within Irish society and Irish political institutions, and at the United Nations and other international human rights regulatory bodies.

In support of these aims we are making this Submission to outline religious discrimination in the Defence Forces and how the Defence Forces breach Constitutional and Human Rights as well as the EU Employment Equality Directive.
2. Overview
The Defence Forces discriminate on religious grounds by failing to put the position of Chaplain out to tender. The position is just given, almost always, to a nominee of a Bishop of the Catholic Church, because they are the majority religion in the country.
The only other Church allowed to nominate Chaplains (known as Official Sending Churches) is the Church of Ireland. There are no Chaplains or nonreligious equivalents for Defence Force members with no religion or who are of minority faiths including Evangelicals and Muslims.
Catholicism is part of the culture of the Defence Forces. A commitment to pluralism, diversity and inclusion is not part of the culture notwithstanding the fact that Ireland is pluralist country with different religions and nonreligious beliefs.
In times past and also today Defence Force personnel are coerced to take part in Catholic or Catholic-led religious ceremonies without any effort made to put in place rules/guidelines to ensure that they need not participate on the grounds of conscience.
That behaviour was and is unconstitutional. Regardless it is still is part of the culture of the Defence Forces. The Defence Forces have never apologised or even acknowledge that this behaviour breaches the rights of all and undermines our Constitution and human rights law.
The Defence Forces is a microcosm of society and should have a clear neutral policy on religion and belief. It should not be seen as promoting a particular religious belief or obliging personnel to participate in religious rites by including religious services in military events.
3. Population Demographics
About 9% of Defence Forces personnel are non-Christian or have no religion, yet all Chaplains are either Roman Catholic (the majority) or Church of Ireland. When we sought a wider breakdown of religious or nonreligious affiliations of personnel and Chaplains, we were told we would have to request this under the Freedom of Information Act. We believe that this information should be available without having to use the FOI Act, but we have sought it as advised. We will send on our analysis if we obtain it under FOI after the closing date for submissions. For this submission we will approximate trends by looking at census and marriage figures.
3.1 Census Figures
In 2016 the CSO figures under the religion category were:

In a recent case at the Court of Appeal, the courts have again upheld the rights of parents and children in the education system. The reasoning of the judgment also strengthens the arguments of atheist and secular parents to have their rights respected in Irish schools.
The case (Burke v the Minister for Education 09.03.21) was in relation to home-schooling and the Leaving Certificate scheme in 2020. The Minister Norma Foley had failed to include home-schooled children in the scheme.
There is a Constitutional right to home-school your children if that is what you want to do on the grounds of conscience. But Minister Norma Foley completely disregarded this Constitutional right when the scheme to replace the Leaving Certificate was put together last year.
The Court of Appeal said of the Minister:

“266 – Accordingly, we are of the view that the Minister took into account an irrelevant consideration when she considered that making provision for the respondents would lead to dissatisfaction among the in-school students and that far from being a valid justification for what was done, it was contrary to reason and common sense in the Keegan sense.”

The Court of Appeal also stated:

“193 – As the State has a duty to respect the right of parents to provide for education through home-schooling, we consider that there is a concomitant duty on the State when formulating education policies for children to take reasonable account of those who are being home-schooled. By virtue of the interwoven rights set out in the Constitution as regards the rights of the child, this in turn creates a concomitant right of the home-schooled child to have reasonable account take of his or her situation when education policies are being implemented by the State, That right can be expressed also as a duty on the State not to disadvantage a child who is home-schooled where it is reasonably possible to avoid that outcome.”

Implications for non-religious families
The Court of Appeal has upheld the right of minorities in the education system, and this case will support the rights of nonreligious families. The Minister for Education Norma Foley takes no account, never mind reasonable account, of children whose parents on the grounds of conscience do not accept the type of religious and moral education on offer in publicly funded schools.
It is the Constitutional duty of the Minister to ensure that our children do ‘not attend‘ religious instruction. The State has failed to put in place any guidelines to ensure that that right is upheld by schools. This means that there is no practical application given to it on the ground. Instead children are just left sitting in the class where religious instruction takes place, and no other subject is offered.
At second level our children are just enrolled in the State Religious Education course. The main aim of this course is to develop values to enable students to see the relevance of religion to their lives. If families do manage to opt their children out, no other subject is offered.
Schools with a Catholic ethos integrate Catholic faith formation into NCCA curriculum religion and just enrol students into it without any regard for Article 42 of the Constitution (Guidelines for the faith formation and development of Catholic students.)
The Department of Education has told ETB schools to no longer integrate catholic faith formation in the NCCA religion course, but they have put in place no follow up or guidelines to ensure that this has happened. That policy is a total disregard for the Constitutional rights of parents.
The Minister simply ignores her Constitutional duty to protect the right to ‘not attend’ religious teaching under Article 44.2.4 in conjunction with Article 42 of the Constitution.
The Minister must take reasonable account of minorities when formulating education policies
The Court of Appeal in the Burke case said that the State when formulating education policies for children had to take reasonable account of minorities.
When will Minister Norma Foley take account of the rights of minorities to ensure that their children do not attend religious instruction?
It is not for schools to decide how and if parents can exercise that right, it is the duty of the Minister. Neither has the Minister the right to decide for parents if a particular type of religous or moral education is suitable for their children.
Parents are not aware of where religion is being integrated into curriculum subjects as schools are not obliged to inform them. Again the Minister has taken no account of the rights of minorities in publicly funded schools.
The Minister leaves it up to each school how they implement the Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction. She has failed to take reasonable account of minorities with this policy, as we know that children are left sitting in the class where religious instruction takes place. Schools simply ignore the right to ‘not attend’ religious instruction and that is the responsibility of the Minister. She has failed in her Constitutional duty. Read more…

 

Vatican’s anti-gay-union dogma is part of the ethos of Irish schools

The Vatican has repeated its policy that it will not bless same sex unions. This should not be a surprise for anybody who is following the changing demographics of the Catholic Church, and the leadership of the theologically conservative Pope Francis, who started his papacy by endorsing an organisation of exorcists at the Vatican.
Two thirds of Roman Catholics now live in the global south (Subsaharan Africa, South east Asia, Central and South America) where Catholics are more conservative on sexual issues as well as more theologically superstitious.
That is the direction that the Catholic Church is going in and because of this it will continue to appear more irrelevant in the global north.  There is a consistent pattern of people becoming more secular as they move away from survival values and towards self expression values. This is a consistent pattern around the world.
If it was only the internal policies of a particular church, that would not be such a problem. But this church also runs the vast majority of our state funded schools and is legally allowed to deliver the state curriculum through its religous ethos.
This Response of the Vatican regarding same sex unions also reiterates its teaching on sex before marriage and contraception. It states that:-

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex. The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan.”

The Catholic Church is the Patron of the majority of schools at primary and second level. This means that their teaching on Relaionship and sexuality education can be integrated into the state curriculum on sex education.
Their is a right under the European Social Charter to objective Relationship and Sexuality education. In addition Article 42.3.2 of the Irish Constitution obliges the state to ensure that all children receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social. Social education includes health education and relationship and sexuality education is part of that. For most children in Ireland it is catholic sex education or no sex education at all.  As there is no access to objective Relationship and sexuality education, children are at a disadvantage and cannot access RSE without it being delivered according to the ethos of the Catholic Church. The state has given no consideration to the right of all children to RSE in publicly funded schools.
When this issue was discussed at the Oireachtas Education Committee the Department of Education stated that schools and teachers could not change the content of the state curriculum on RSE. However because of Section 15 of the Education Act 1998 it could effect what students ‘hear’ and the resources used. It was pointed out by members of the Oireachtas Education Committee that what students ‘hear’ is what they are taught. The Oireachtas Education Committee made a Recommendation to amend Section 15 of the Education Act 1998 to ensure that the updated RSE curriculum was delivered in an objective manner by teachers.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is updating curriculum Relationship and Sexuality Education. They have not recommended any change to Section 15 of the Education Act. This means that any updated RSE curriculum can be delivered according to the ethos of the school. Schools can and do have Religious education policies which outline how their religious ethos must be integrated in curriculum subjects.
Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act is still in place and this puts teachers in the position that they are legally obliged to uphold the ethos of the patron. The rights of students in the education system to objective relationship and sexuality education is never taken on board. Read more…

Respect our rights

In the recent Burke case at the Court of Appeal the court found that the combined effects of Article 41 and 42 of the constitution created an interwoven set of duties and rights in which primacy was given to parental choice in the education of their children.

If this is the case why has the state put in place a religious education course that seeks to develop in children from non religious backgrounds values to enable them to see the relevance of religion to their lives. Why does the Department of Education and the Minister claim that this course is suitable for all including those those students from atheist backgrounds.

What part of the Constitution does the Minister not understand?

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Calling concerned teachers

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