Atheist Ireland | General Archives

23/06/2020 No Comments Atheist Ireland

Grania Spingies would have been fifty today

Grania Spingies, who died suddenly this month last year, would have been fifty today. She was a founding member and first secretary of Atheist Ireland, and a contributor to Jerry Coyne’s website Why Evolution is True. Grania was an intelligent and organised activist, a rational and effective communicator, and a ...

17/05/2020 No Comments Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #438 – The Pandemic and the Programme for Government

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06/05/2020 No Comments Atheist Ireland

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 ...

01/05/2020 1 Comment Atheist Ireland

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 ...

29/04/2020 No Comments Atheist Ireland

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) ...

25/04/2020 No Comments Atheist Ireland

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 ...

15/04/2020 Atheist Ireland

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 ...

29/03/2020 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #431 – We will get through this together

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22/03/2020 Atheist Ireland

Take care of yourself and others during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how we live until further notice. The best way to take care of yourself and others is to act on reliable, evidence-based information. Within Ireland, the HSE website has reliable information including symptoms and causes, protecting yourself and others, specific hospital information, and minding your mental ...

15/03/2020 Secular Sunday

Secular Sunday #429 – Coronavirus Update

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