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Editorial
Atheist Ireland and the United Nations
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is questioning Ireland in July about our human rights record under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR. As we always do, Atheist Ireland has made a submission about freedom of conscience, religion, and belief. Some of the issues that we are raising are as follows:
We want the State to commit to ensuring that every child has the right to access a local publicly funded school without religious discrimination, and to correct its false statement to the UN that the government’s policy includes opening non-denominational schools.
As an immediate step, the State should respect and vindicate the right of children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction, and provide such children with supervision or an alternative curriculum subject.
The State should ensure that schools provide a neutral studying environment, outside the confines of religious instruction classes that students can choose to not attend, with particular emphasis on objective sex eduction classes.
The State should commit to holding a referendum to remove religious oaths from the Constitution and replace them with a single declaration that does not reveal the religious or nonreligious beliefs of the person making it.
The State should amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act so that minorities can train and gain employment as teachers without being legally obliged to uphold a specific religious ethos and teach religious instruction particularly in publicly funded schools.
As always, you can help us to continue our work by joining Atheist Ireland as a member, or by asking anybody who you think may be interested in joining us to do so. We are an entirely voluntary body with no paid staff, and we depend on our members to continue our work. You can join Atheist Ireland here.
– Secular Sunday Editorial Team
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Éire Aindiach
Éire Aindiach
Chun ár gcuid feachtais a leathnú agus a neartú, tá sé beartaithe ag Éire Aindiach níos mó úsáid a bhaint as an Ghaeilge.
Ba mhaith linn meitheal a eagrú, chun cuidiú le:
- Polasaithe agus feachtais Éire Aindiach a phlé ar an raidió nó ar an teilifís
- Cuidiú le doiciméid ghaeilge a scríobh
- Bualadh le polaiteoirí chun stocaireacht a dhéanamh
Táimid i mbun aistriúcháin a dhéanamh ar dhoiciméid polasaí faoi láthair, agus teastaíonn cabhair uainn le aistriúchán agus profáil. Más maith leat bheith páirteach san iarracht seo, cur ríomhphost chugainn ag gaeilge@atheist.ie.
English translation:
To broaden and strengthen our campaigns, Atheist Ireland have undertaken to make more use of the Irish language.
We are looking to assemble a group of volunteers, to help with:
- Discussing our policies and campaigns on radio or tv
- Helping to write documents in Irish
- Meeting with politicians to lobby them
We are in the process of translating policy documents at the moment, and we need some help with translating and proofreading. If you would like to assist with this effort, please email us at gaeilge@atheist.ie.
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Atheist Ireland News
Atheist Ireland raises religious discrimination with the UN Human Rights Committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is questioning Ireland in July about our human rights record under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or ICCPR.
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission about Freedom of Conscience, Religion, and Belief. You can also read it here on the United Nations website.
Contents
- 1. Introduction to Atheist Ireland
- 2. Our recommendations based on Paragraph 20
- 3. List of Issues Paragraph 20
- 4. Education (Admission to Schools) Act
- 5. Other measures to improve access to secular schools
- 5(a) No secular or non-denominational schools
- 5(b) The right of parents to freedom of conscience
- 5(c) The right to a neutral studying environment
- 6. Religious Oaths in the Constitution
- 7. Section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act 1998
1. Introduction to Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is an Irish advocacy group. We promote atheism and reason over superstition and supernaturalism, and we promote an ethical, secular society where the State does not discriminate against or support or finance or give special treatment to any religion or belief.
Atheists are a minority in Ireland. These are the last census figures in 2016 under the category for Religion states (figures in thousands): Roman Catholic 3,729.1 – Church of Ireland 126.4 – Muslim (Islamic) 63.4 – Orthodox 62.2 – Christian 37.4 – Presbyterian 24.2 – Hindu 14.3 – Apostolic or Pentecostal 13.4 – Other 97.7 – No religion 468.4 – Not stated 125.3.
Since being formed in late 2008, we have campaigned for a secular human rights based Irish Constitution, parliament, laws, and government, with particular emphasis on our education system which discriminates systemically on the ground of religion. We are part of the dialogue process between the Government and religious and nonreligious philosophical bodies.
We led a successful decade-long campaign to remove the crime of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution. The 37th Amendment to the Constitution Bill was brought to Dáil Éireann and the Irish public passed the amendment in a referendum in 2018. The Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Act was passed in 2019.
We base our policies on human rights standards. We have addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council and we take part in sessions of various UN Committees. We have successfully had human rights based recommendations made based on our submissions to these committees. We have also made submissions to the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
2. Our recommendations based on paragraph 20
20 (a) Part 1 Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018
The State should commit to ensuring that every child has the right to access a local publicly funded school without religious discrimination or being threatened with refusal of access if they don’t uphold the schools ethos.
The State should ensure that schools and patron bodies comply with Section 62(7)(n) of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018 by actually writing into their admission policies the details of the arrangements for children who are not attending religious instruction, and not by saying that parents have to meet with the school principal to discuss it.
20 (a) Part 2 Other measures to improve access to secular schools
The State should correct its false statement to the Committee that the government’s policy is to have 400 ‘multi-denominational or non-denominational’ schools by 2030, and acknowledge that this policy refers only to ‘multi-denominational’ schools.
The State should commit to establishing secular or non-denominational schools at primary and second level, and not merely multi-denominational schools.
The State should legally and clearly define the terms denominational, multi-denominational, interdenominational, and non-denominational, as per the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission Report ‘Religion & Education; A human Rights Perspective’.
The State should provide statutory guidelines to ensure that publicly funded schools:
Respect and vindicate the positive rights of minorities to freedom of conscience and respect for their religious or nonreligious philosophical convictions.
Respect and vindicate the right of children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction, and provide such children with supervision or an alternative curriculum subject.
Provide a neutral studying environment, outside the confines of religious instruction classes that students can choose to not attend.
20 (b) Religious Oaths in the Constitution
The State should commit to holding a referendum to remove religious oaths from the Constitution and replace them with a single declaration that does not reveal the religious or nonreligious beliefs of the person making it.
The State should reverse its claim, made at the European Court, that these oaths are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
20 (c) Section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act 1998
The State should amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act so that minorities can train and gain employment as teachers without being legally obliged to uphold a specific religious ethos and teach religious instruction particularly in publicly funded schools.
Read more…
Calling concerned teachers
If you are a teacher and concerned about unwanted religious influence contact Chris at teachers@atheist.ie
List of Atheist Ireland Submissions
Buy this book “Is My Family Odd About Gods?”
**Schools Special Offer**
Atheist Ireland are offering the book ‘Is my family odd about gods‘ free (excluding postage and packaging). This means that you can get this book for the total price of 10 euro. This offer is aimed at families with school going children, who would like to read this book. This offer is limited to one book per family unit and for postage within Ireland only. Read more…
Have you noticed that your school and your teachers may tell you one thing about religion, while some of your friends and family may have different ideas about god?
If you think that this is a little odd, then this book is for you. Buy this book here.
Lessons about Atheism
Atheist Ireland has published a set of free lesson plans about atheism for children aged 8 and up. We welcome feedback, which we will use to develop the lessons. You can download the lesson plans
Be Good without Gods
Atheist Ireland ‘Good Without Gods’ Kiva team members have made loans of $37,025 to 1290 entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can join the team here. Before you chose a loan, make sure you do not support religious groups. You can check the loan partner’s social and secular rating here.
Notme.ie
Atheist Ireland’s ‘notme.ie‘ is a place where people can publicly renounce the religion of their childhood. Currently there are 1927 symbolic defections. Many share their reasons for making a public symbolic defection which you can read here.
Petition on Schools Equality PACT
Atheist Ireland currently runs one petition – The Schools Equality PACT. This seeks to reform religious discrimination in state-funded schools. Currently this stands at 4,112 Help us reach it’s target of 5000. Please sign and share this petition if you haven’t already done so. Thank you.
Tell us what you think
Have you any feedback that you would like to give us on the Secular Sunday newsletter. What are we getting right? What could we improve on? Is there something you would like to see included? Drop us an email at secularsunday@atheist.ie.
Please consider joining or re-joining Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland is an entirely volunteer run organisation. We receive no grants or government funding to continue our campaign work. We rely entirely on membership fess and donations.
Annual membership is nominal; €25 waged, €10 unwaged/student and €40 for family membership. Please consider becoming a member. Membership means:
- You can help to build an ethical and secular Ireland.
- You have a say in determining policy and electing officers.
- You can attend members meetings and our AGM.
- You will have access to our members only Facebook group
- Your membership fee will go towards supporting our many campaigns.
You can join Atheist Ireland here.
Thank you for your continued support
Atheist Ireland Committee
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Opinion and Media
Material on atheism, secularism, human rights,politics,science etc. collected from media and the blogosphere from Ireland and beyond; used without permission, compensation, liability, guarantee or implied endorsement. We aim to include a variety of diverse opinions and viewpoints.
Blogs & Opinions
National
Number of women and girls travelling to Great Britain for abortions rising
By author
MORE THAN 200 women and girls travelled to Great Britain for abortions last year, an increase compared to 2020, figures show. Some 206 women and girls with addresses in the Republic of Ireland sought abortion care, with a further 161 women and girls travelling from Northern Ireland. Read more…
Debunk: No, this photo doesn’t show a ‘bloody’ eucharist at a Mayo church
By Céimin Burke
A PHOTO THAT has been shared thousands of times on social media in recent days does not show a consecrated communion host that turned red after being dropped in water in a church in Mayo. Read more…
The real Irish revolution has been occurring since the 1990s
By Fintan O’Toole
If you hear or read the phrase “the Irish revolution”, the chances are that you will think of the period of violent upheaval that culminated in the foundation of the State a hundred years ago. But perhaps we should be thinking instead of a much more recent period of transformation. Read more…
International
Women’s rights shattered as US Supreme Court overturns right to abortion
By Humanists UK
Today, the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade – the 50 year-old ruling which made access to abortion a constitutional right in the United States. By a margin of six to three, the Supreme Court judges removed this right, instead allowing individual states to regulate abortion access. 26 states are expected to shortly ban abortion. Read more…
Parents at Sydney Anglican school St Catherine’s reject ‘hurtful’ anti-same-sex marriage statement
By Caitlin Cassidy
Parents at Sydney Anglican school St Catherine’s are preparing for a fight after publicly rejecting a new requirement for incoming principals to sign a statement that marriage is between a man and a woman, with some same-sex parents saying the statement is deeply hurtful. Read more…
Belief in God in U.S. Dips to 81%, a New Low
By Jeffrey M. Jones
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup’s trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God. Read more…
Islamic school leader banned for misogynistic and homophobic sermons
By The National Secular Society
The National Secular Society has welcomed a decision to ban a former faith school proprietor after he published hateful sermons about women and gay people. The Department for Education today announced Waheed Alam, also known as Abu Khadeejah, has been prohibited from managing schools for engaging in conduct that is “aimed at undermining the fundamental value of individual liberty”. Read more…
Supreme Court OKs use of public money for religious education
By Pete Willliams
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that state programs providing money for public school tuition cannot exclude schools that offer religious instruction. The decision relaxed long-standing restrictions on using taxpayer money to pay for religious education, further lowering the wall of separation between church and state. Read online…
Buffy Sainte-Marie wants more than just an apology from the Pope
By Greg Hobbs
Songwriter, educator and human rights advocate Buffy Sainte-Marie says the Pope’s upcoming visit to Canada and expected apology for the church’s involvement in the residential school system won’t mean a thing if he doesn’t call for the dissolution of the Doctrine of Discovery. Read more…
UN tells Chile to examine clerical child abuse following NSS report
By The National Secular Society
A United Nations committee has called on Chile to investigate all cases of child abuse in the Catholic Church following an intervention from the National Secular Society. In its concluding observations on child rights in Chile, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has urged Chile to establish “an independent, impartial, adequately funded truth commission to examine all cases of abuse of children in institutional settings, including within the Catholic church” Read more…
Supreme Court overturns landmark Roe v Wade abortion ruling
By Independent.ie Newsdesk
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognised a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure. Read more…
Polish parliament rejects bill to liberalise abortion law
By Daniel Tilles
Poland’s parliament has rejected a bill that would have liberalised the country’s abortion law – which is one of the strictest in Europe – by allowing terminations on demand up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Read more…
If you are a blogger or vlogger writing or talking about atheism, secularism, ethics, skepticism, human rights etc. and would like us to include your work here please email the link to secularsunday@atheist.ie
Podcasts, Videos and Interviews
Ireland
Do you host an Irish-based podcast on atheism, secularism, science, skepticism, human rights etc.? Let us know and we will link to it here.
International
Media Watch
News and views from Ireland and around the world. Sharing is not an endorsement.
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