Schools are obliged to use existing funding to supervise students
Publicly funded schools are obliged to use their existing funding to supervise students outside the religious instruction class. The recent Legal Opinion that Atheist Ireland obtained confirms that schools cannot refuse to supervise children outside the religious instruction class on the basis that they do not get enough funding from ...
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 ...
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 ...
Solidarity responses to General Election questions from Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland has asked political parties and candidates running in the General Election on 8th February to answer ten questions regarding secular issues. Here are the responses from Solidarity. 1. One Oath For All Will you support amending the Constitution to enable the President, Judges, and members of the Council ...
Labour Party responses to General Election questions from Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland has asked political parties and candidates running in the General Election on 8th February to answer ten questions regarding secular issues. Here are the responses from the Labour Party. 1. One Oath For All Will you support amending the Constitution to enable the President, Judges, and members of ...
Green Party responses to General Election questions from Atheist Ireland
Atheist Ireland has asked political parties and candidates running in the General Election on 8th February to answer ten questions regarding secular issues. Here are the responses from the Green Party. 1. One Oath For All Will you support amending the Constitution to enable the President, Judges, and members of ...
Hate speech review must not reintroduce blasphemy by another name
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, David Kaye, has told the UN General Assembly that there is no ‘heckler’s veto’ in international human rights law. His Report gives conclusions and recommendations for how States and Companies should approach online hate speech. Some of his key points are: Offline human ...
Remembering Joe Davis, who died this week
Joe Davis, one of Atheist Ireland’s earliest and most-loved members, died this week. For most of his life, he felt like an outsider as an atheist living in Ireland, and he was delighted to have found a like-minded community when Atheist Ireland was founded a decade ago. We were delighted ...
CCPC Questions Role of Bishops in School Book Market
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has sought an explanation from the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, in relation to a possible breach of EU competition law. The consumer protection body is concerned that the behaviour of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference has been prejudicial to the interests of the ...
Now Minister Bruton wants to pay Catholic Church for Christian ETB schools to use their buildings
The Minister for Education has announced yet another consultation process in relation to religion and education. This time he hopes to pay the Catholic Church rent for school buildings, if they agree to a different Patron body running a small number of schools, while the State also pays for the operation and ...