Ten Questions for Election Candidates
16/01/2020 No Comments

Ten Questions for Election Candidates

Atheist Ireland is asking the political parties and candidates, who are contesting the General Election on 8th February, to answer these ten questions about secular policies. We will publish the responses to assist you in deciding who to vote for. Please ask your own local candidates these questions, either by ...

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Minister confirms that many ETB schools are denominational
10/01/2020 No Comments

Minister confirms that many ETB schools are denominational

The Minister for Education Joe McHugh has confirmed that a quarter of ETB Community Colleges are denominational (61 out of 243), and that all except two of the Community Schools that the ETBs jointly run are Catholic (80 out of 82). The rest of the ETB Community Colleges are officially ...

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Ireland no longer has a blasphemy law
02/01/2020 5 Comments

Ireland no longer has a blasphemy law

We start the new decade with the good news that Ireland no longer has the medieval crime of blasphemy in our laws. Over the Christmas period, President Michael D Higgins signed the Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019, and it has accordingly become law. Atheist Ireland thanks the ...

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The European Convention on Human Rights protects nonreligious beliefs
01/01/2020 No Comments

The European Convention on Human Rights protects nonreligious beliefs

The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, which is protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, also protects atheists and nonreligious philosophical convictions such as secularism. The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg in France, oversees the European Convention, through the European Court of Human ...

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Celebrating Nic Johnson
29/12/2019 No Comments

Celebrating Nic Johnson

Our good friend Nic Johnson is nearing the end of his exceptional 85 years of life. He has spent most of those years promoting atheism, humanism, and secularism with passion and integrity. Before he moved to Ireland, he campaigned for abortion rights in America, during an era when campaigners promoted ...

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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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