Last week Atheist Ireland met with Deputy Barry Ward regarding his Private Members Bill about the religious oath for judges in the Irish Constitution (The Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Judicial Oath of Office) Bill 2025). We welcome this bill as a further indication of how a secular state would ...
Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution singles out religious instruction over the teaching of other school subjects, and makes it the responsibility of the Oireachtas, not the Executive. Article 44.2.4 makes vindicating the right to not attend religious instruction a condition of state aid to schools. When providing state aid to ...
The phrase ‘faith formation’ in schools is not in the Constitution. Whether you refer to faith formation classes, or faith formation in the general atmosphere of the school, there is simply no Article in our Constitution that uses the term ‘faith formation’. It is not possible to remove what is ...
The Irish National Teachers Association has voted to lobby to remove a religious education qualification that is required by all teachers who wish to teach in Catholic primary schools. They will also form a task force to look at the future of primary school patronage. This highlights one of Atheist ...
The oireachtas, not the Government or the Department of Education or schools, is responsible for regulating the Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in schools. That is why statutory guidelines are needed, passed by the Oireachtas, not just Government policies, or circular letters from the Department, or abdication of ...
The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, still has no plans to amend the Education Act 1998 to guarantee that relationship and sexuality education will be delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner and not through religious ethos of schools. Atheist Ireland has made submissions to the National Council for ...
In the Dail yesterday Donnchadh O’Laoghaire from Sinn Fein asked the Minister for Education about sex education in schools. The Catholic Bishops have introduced a course called Flourish to primary schools. Flourish is Catholic sex education, and the programme is to be taught alongside curriculum Relationship and Sexuality education. Here ...
In the aftermath of the Mother and Baby Homes report, Seamus McKenna outlines how the Irish Catholic Church has harmed our people, our schools, and our democracy. On the 12th of January 2021 the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters in the Republic of ...
The NCCA is updating the sex education curriculum, but this will not matter if schools can deliver the content according to their religious ethos. They can do this because of the Education Act 1998. Atheist Ireland has raised this issue with the Oireachtas Education Committee and the United Nations. When the ...
In Ireland the Charities Act and Tax law discriminates against atheists, humanists and secularisits. In our Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee Atheist Ireland have requested that the Committee ask the Irish state - “Question: Will the state party amend the Charities Act under the ‘religion’ category to ‘religions ...