How was an anti-abortion video shown in curriculum Religious Education class?
Atheist Ireland has written again to the Oireachtas Education Committee regarding an anti-abortion video shown to students during curriculum Religious Education in an Irish school. Here is the letter we have written. We refer to our letter to the Committee on 21st August 2021 regarding, among other issues, an anti-abortion ...
Revealed: The Philosophy and Ethical Code of the Religious Sisters of Charity Health Service
This week John Hamill obtained a copy of the Religious Sisters of Charity Health Service Philosophy and Ethical Code under the Freedom of Information Act. The Saint Vincent's Hospital Group had refused to give it to him, but John appealed and the Office of the Information Commissioner overruled the hospital. ...
The National Maternity Hospital must be public and secular
There will be a rally outside the Dáil at 2pm this Saturday, 14 May, organised by the Our Maternity Hospital campaign, of which Atheist Ireland is a member. The very fact that the Government has to try so hard to reassure us that the hospital will be safe from religious ...
Review of Termination of Pregnancy Act
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Which parts of the Act have not operated well? Conscientious objection: Nearly 50% of maternity hospitals do not provide full abortion services, and conscientious objection may be ...
The National Maternity Hospital and Article 44 of the Constitution
In a democratic republic, the State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital. It should not cede control over this essential public service to any private institution, such as Saint Vincent’s Holdings. Our Constitution was heavily influenced by Catholic Church teaching. There are Articles in our Constitution that ...
Minister for Education replies to Atheist Ireland about religion in schools and anti-abortion video
The Minister for Education Norma Foley has replied to a letter from Atheist Ireland about the right to not attend religious instruction in schools and a recent anti-abortion video shown in a school. Here is the Minister's reply and our reply to her. Letter from Minister for Education to Atheist ...
Support the campaign for the State to own and manage the new National Maternity Hospital
Atheist Ireland joined a meeting this week of women’s rights groups and secular groups that want the State to own and manage the new National Maternity Hospital. The meeting was convened by Jo Tully, chairperson of the Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare. This growing campaign has two demands: ...
The implications for parents’ rights of the anti-abortion video shown in Tipperary school
Atheist Ireland has written the following letter to the Oireachtas joint committee on Education, about not attending Religious Instruction in schools, and the recent anti-abortion video shown in a school. We would like the Committee to take the following into account when it reaches the stage of addressing our legal opinion ...
Catholic Bishops show their hypocrisy about freedom of conscience in two new abortion posts
The Catholic Bishops are complaining that applicants for two new medical posts at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin will be required to carry out elective abortions if appointed. The Bishops say that this “totally undermines the whole concept of freedom of conscience which was guaranteed in the recent legislation”. ...
Abortion vote sees fall of Ireland’s Catholic Berlin Wall
This referendum sees the fall of the Catholic Berlin Wall that has kept a pluralist Irish people trapped within the laws of a Catholic Irish Constitution. Pregnant Irish women will now have the same right, to equality before the law, that gay couples have had since the marriage equality vote ...