NCCA report avoids the question of how to deliver objective sex education
11/12/2019 No Comments

NCCA report avoids the question of how to deliver objective sex education

The NCCA has failed to recommend that the Education Act be amended to ensure that students get objective sex education that is not influenced by a religious school ethos. Its new report has simply described the problem of ethos, instead of addressing how to resolve it. And the Minister for ...

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Tackling prejudice-motivated crime and protecting freedom of expression
10/12/2019 No Comments

Tackling prejudice-motivated crime and protecting freedom of expression

[Pictured above is David Kaye, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression, whose recommendations form part of this document] Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the Department of Justice's consultation on hate crime and hate speech laws. We ...

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Religion should not, and can not, be made compulsory in Irish schools
24/11/2019 No Comments

Religion should not, and can not, be made compulsory in Irish schools

Michael Nugent was on Newstalk Radio this week, debating whether religion should be made compulsory in Irish schools. Alan Whelan of the Catholic Secondary Schools Parents Partnership argued that it should be. Religion should not be compulsory in Irish schools, because it would be a bad idea, and it can ...

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Freedom of Thought Report 2019 highlights blasphemy laws
13/11/2019 No Comments

Freedom of Thought Report 2019 highlights blasphemy laws

It is important that Ireland completes the process of removing the crime of blasphemy from our laws as well as our constitution. The Bill designed to do this is currently at the Office of the Attorney General for formal drafting. A report published today on the human rights of non-religious ...

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Government blocking Objective Sex Education Bill and 50 others
05/11/2019 No Comments

Government blocking Objective Sex Education Bill and 50 others

The Government is using a procedure called a Money Message to block over 50 Bills that have been passed in the Dail by opposition parties, including Solidarity’s Bill to provide Objective Sex Education without interference by a school’s religious ethos. Solidarity and People Before Profit will be proposing a new ...

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Support the making of Debutante, a short film
03/11/2019 No Comments

Support the making of Debutante, a short film

Please support the making of Debutante, a film about religious control and coming-of-age in a hostile environment. You can help to make it happen by contributing to the crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The Jehovah’s Witnesses religion controls its members by restricting their sexuality and shunning them if they don’t keep ...

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Hate speech review must not reintroduce blasphemy by another name
25/10/2019 No Comments

Hate speech review must not reintroduce blasphemy by another name

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, David Kaye, has told the UN General Assembly that there is no ‘heckler’s veto’ in international human rights law. His Report gives conclusions and recommendations for how States and Companies should approach online hate speech. Some of his key points are: Offline human ...

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UN to raise racial and religious discrimination in the Irish Education system
15/10/2019 No Comments

UN to raise racial and religious discrimination in the Irish Education system

In Geneva this December, Ireland will be examined by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Last Friday, the UN CERD Committee published a List of Themes for the examination of Ireland in December. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland,
 and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community ...

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Catholic School lesson plan promotes sexist, violent, antisemitic, forged Bible passage
15/10/2019 5 Comments

Catholic School lesson plan promotes sexist, violent, antisemitic, forged Bible passage

A lesson plan in the Catholic Grow in Love series, for sixth class students, has the students acting out the Bible story about “the woman caught in adultery." This will be taught in about 90% of State-funded primary schools in Ireland, and teachers who want a job in these schools ...

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Internal ETBI report vindicates Atheist Ireland claims about religion in State schools
07/10/2019 No Comments

Internal ETBI report vindicates Atheist Ireland claims about religion in State schools

Today the Irish Times published details of an internal ETBI report that vindicates what Atheist Ireland has been saying for years about the teaching of religion in Education and Training Board schools. ETBs are supposed to be the State-run alternative to denominational schools, but unfortunately many of them are run ...

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