Support the Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016
The Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016 will be debated in the Dail next Tuesday night between 8pm and 10pm. If passed this Bill would ensure that all children and their parents have access to an education system with equal respect and dignity and where their human rights are guaranteed. ...
Gardai decision to drop Stephen Fry blasphemy investigation creates an incentive to demonstrate outrage
The Gardai are reported to have decided to not proceed with the Stephen Fry blasphemy investigation. The reported reason for this decision is even more dangerous than a prosecution would have been. The Gardai have not denied that the comments were grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matter held ...
Stephen Fry blasphemy investigation also threatens RTE, Irish Times and Atheist Ireland
The police investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy also threatens RTE, the Irish Times and Atheist Ireland. The offence of blasphemy is committed not only by the person who first utters a blasphemous statement, but also by anybody who publishes it. RTE published the statement by Stephen Fry when they ...
International blasphemy expert Prof David Nash responds to police investigation of Stephen Fry
Professor David Nash of Oxford Brookes University is an international expert on the history and contemporary status of blasphemy laws throughout Europe and beyond. He has worked with Atheist Ireland at the United Nations and the Irish Constitutional Convention to seek abolition of the Irish blasphemy law. He has today ...
Atheist Ireland republishes 25 blasphemous quotes in solidarity with Stephen Fry
Atheist Ireland welcomes the Irish police investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy. It highlights a law that is silly, silencing, and dangerous. On 1 January 2010, the day the new Irish blasphemy law became operational, Atheist Ireland published a list of 25 blasphemous quotes in order to challenge the law. Today, ...
Atheist Ireland welcomes police investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy
Atheist Ireland welcomes the police investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy. It highlights a law that is silly, silencing, and dangerous. It is a silly law because it suggests that the creator of the universe needs the Oireachtas to protect its feelings. It is a silencing law because many Irish ...
Do Not Stand for This – It is Time to Separate Church and State
The Dail yesterday voted to force all TDs to stand for a Christian prayer every day, asking Christ Our Lord to direct every word and action of theirs, and to force the Ceann Comhairle to read the prayer aloud. Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Labour Party all supported this ...
Thank you to the TDs who supported separation of Church and State last night
Atheist Ireland thanks the TDs who spoke in favour of separation of Church and State in the Dail last night, and in support of the equal right of every citizen to freedom of religion or nonreligious belief. While still a minority in the Dail, they reflect the changing mood of ...
Department of Education to Issue New Guidelines on Teaching Religion
Atheist Ireland has learned that the Department of Education and Skills is to issue new guidelines on the teaching of religion at post-primary level. This follows an engagement between a parent who is a member of Atheist Ireland and the ETB sector, with regard to how religion classes are conducted ...
The State cannot influence Catholic ethos in State-funded schools, so how can it do so in hospitals?
Fintan O’Toole writes today in the Irish Times about how the word ‘ethos’ is used in Irish schools to justify imposing arbitrary rules, based on the personal religious beliefs of those in authority. He points out that in the 1882 Eileen Flynn case, the school principal defended her decision to ...