The European Court of Human Rights today ruled that Italian State schools may display crucifixes on classroom walls, overturning an earlier judgment to the contrary. Today's judgment lays down many important points of human rights law in favour of secularism, and it leaves open the possibility of further legal challenges ...
Atheist Ireland welcomes the decision by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to establish a forum to identify how schools can be transferred out of Catholic patronage as a matter of immediate priority. We hope to participate as fully as possible in this forum as an advocacy group for an ethical ...
Atheist Ireland has sent the following submission to the members of the Fine Gael and Labour Party negotiating teams for the Programme for Government. As you begin setting out an agreed Programme for Government for the incoming administration, Atheist Ireland wants to congratulate your parties on your recent successes. We ...
Atheist Ireland wants a change to the Education (Amendment) Bill 2010, which is being debated this week in the Dail, to ensure the right of parents to a secular education based on human rights law in new VEC primary schools. The Bill will allow VECs to become patrons of new ...
At our AGM last Saturday, Atheist Ireland adopted the following amended version of the Copenhagen Declaration on Religion in Public Life. The original version was written and adopted by delegates at the world atheist conference "Gods and Politics" held in Copenhagen from 18-20 June 2010. This version is based on feedback ...
From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. In response, we have published a list of 25 blasphemous quotes: 1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was ...
Do you want to stop the Irish government from reviving the medieval crime of blasphemy? Do you want to promote a rational, ethical and secular society in Ireland? Atheist Ireland has put a campaign website online at http://blasphemy.ie/ as part of our campaign against this proposed new law. It includes ...
The Irish Government’s new proposed blasphemy crime combines the oppressive religious thinking of 1950s Catholic Ireland and modern Islamic fundamentalism. This proposal should be opposed for three reasons: One, it does not protect religious belief. Instead, it encourages outrage and it criminalises free speech. Two, it treats religious beliefs as ...