How secular is the Programme for Government?
16/06/2020 No Comments

How secular is the Programme for Government?

This is Atheist Ireland’s initial response to the proposed Programme for Government agreed jointly by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party. While it is weak on explicit secular policies, some of its commitments would lead to secular specifics if they are implemented while respecting freedom of religion and ...

Read More

Pakistan still persecuting religious minorities
07/06/2020 No Comments

Pakistan still persecuting religious minorities

Pakistan is still persecuting atheists and religious minorities with blasphemy charges, often trumped up because of personal disputes, which can result in life imprisonment or the death penalty. Here are two current examples: an illiterate Christian couple facing death by hanging for allegedly sending a text message, whose appeal has ...

Read More

The United Nations and Religious Minorities
31/05/2020 No Comments

The United Nations and Religious Minorities

Atheist Ireland today sent this submission to Dr Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. He is preparing a report for the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, about the significance and scope of the four categories of minorities (national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities). In ...

Read More

Homework Pass ruling has lessons for the state, school boards, principals, and teachers
06/05/2020

Homework Pass ruling has lessons for the state, school boards, principals, and teachers

A recent case at the Workplace Relations Commission has found that Yellow Furze National School in Meath discriminated on religious grounds against a family that had no religious belief. The school claimed at the WRC that the case was unfounded. Most schools are unable to recognise religious discrimination when it ...

Read More

WRC rules that ‘homework pass for mass’ is religious discrimination
01/05/2020

WRC rules that ‘homework pass for mass’ is religious discrimination

The Workplace Relations Commission has found that Yellow Furze National School in Meath discriminated on religious grounds against a family, in a case that Atheist Ireland raised publicly last September. The school is under Catholic patronage, and it gave homework passes to children who attended Catholic religious services. But it ...

Read More

Catholic schools defying new law by not including opt-out details in admissions policies
29/04/2020

Catholic schools defying new law by not including opt-out details in admissions policies

The Catholic Church is still trying to undermine the right of parents to opt their children out of religion classes. They are now trying to ensure that the arrangements for opting out are kept secret and that parents are not consulted. This is contrary to the Education (Admissions to Schools) ...

Read More

How can a five-year-old child undermine a school’s religious ethos?
25/04/2020

How can a five-year-old child undermine a school’s religious ethos?

Despite what some people think, the Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018 has not removed the religious discrimination in access to schools in Ireland. Minority faith primary schools and any religious secondary school can still give preference to co-religionists. And Catholic schools can still refuse access to children who they ...

Read More

Understanding Freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief
15/04/2020

Understanding Freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s proposed framework for government aims to create a new social contract. This should treat everybody equally regardless of their religious or nonreligious beliefs, and without giving privilege to any religious or atheist organisations. To do this, we must reconsider our understanding of freedom of thought, ...

Read More

FF and FG’s new social contract must be based on equal freedom of religion and belief
15/04/2020

FF and FG’s new social contract must be based on equal freedom of religion and belief

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael's proposed framework for government aims to create new, credible, quality-of-life measures of individual and societal wellbeing and progress. They are correct to focus on economic recovery, healthcare, housing, education, climate action, young people, and global citizenship. They are also correct to prioritise underlying principles through a ...

Read More

Support today’s livestream for jailed Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi
14/04/2020

Support today’s livestream for jailed Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi

Some of us have our freedoms temporarily constrained in order to protect people from the Covid pandemic. We should consider ourselves lucky compared to Soheil Arabi. Soheil is a 34-year-old Iranian blogger with a young daughter. He has been jailed and tortured since his arrest in 2013 for blasphemy after ...

Read More