The new RSE programme for Catholic primary schools highlights the impact religion has on State education as a result of our current school patronage model, according to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD of Fine Gael. Flourish, the relationships and sexuality education programme for junior infants to sixth class, has been developed ...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the Pastoral Reflection by the Bishop of Clonfert, Michael Duignan, about changes in the Catholic Church, which Patsy McGarry reports on in today’s Irish Times. Bishop Duignan says that in the past, the Church tried to "engage with and convert secular society" but perhaps it was now ...
A group of parents in Cork are organising to challenge the Catholic Bishops sex education course ‘Flourish’ in their children’s Primary schools. The Catholic Bishops plan to teach their new course alongside syllabus Social, Personal and Health education in schools. The parents say: “We're a group of concerned parents in ...
Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to all Government Ministers, TDs and Senators. Please contact your own TD or Senator and ask them to support legislation for objective sex education. Dear Minister, TD, Senator, The Programme for Government commits to make legislative changes, if necessary, to ensure inclusive Relationship ...
Census figures released today show yet again that Ireland is no longer a Catholic country. Our laws must catch up with this reality, and stop giving privilege to the Catholic Church. For the first time ever, in 2020, there were more Civil marriages than Catholic marriages in Ireland. 42.1% of ...
The Vice Chair of the INTO, Joe McKeown, said yesterday that the INTO would take steps to make sure that teachers are not disciplined or punished for a failure to use the Catholic sex education programme Flourish in schools. And Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said today that inclusive and age-appropriate curricula ...
Atheist Ireland has been working for several years on the issue of objective versus Catholic sex education in Irish schools. If you want to understand more about the issue, you can read our submissions and articles linked below. The Department of Education supports the integration of religion into sex education through ...
As the NCCA is updating the syllabus for Social, Personal, and Health Education (SPHE), the Catholic Bishops are circling the croziers by introducing a new course called ‘Flourish’ in publicly funded national schools. Flourish is officially Relationship and Sex Education, and in practice is Catholic Sex and Morality Education. It ...
Last month Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, made a joint submission to the Public Consultation Commission on the Defence Forces. You can read that here. We argued that Roman Catholicism is part of the culture of the Defence Forces, and that ...
Ireland will be questioned this year by the United Nations Human Rights Council under a process called the Universal Periodic Review. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, have made this joint submission to UN on freedom of religion and belief in Ireland. ...