The courts in Ireland have found that parents have a constitutional right to have religious education and religious formation in publicly funded schools. In order to remove this right from the Constitution, we would need a referendum. Any legislation that forbids religious education and formation in schools would be unconstitutional. ...
The number of Catholic weddings has recovered from its dramatic drop during Covid, and has returned to the pattern of steady decline that has been happening for the past decade. In the decade since 2012, the percentage of Catholic weddings has dropped from 65.2% to 40.5%, and nonreligious weddings (civil ...
Atheist Ireland has sent the following response to a letter from Bernie McNally, Secretary General of the Department of Education, regarding our correspondence with the Oireachtas Education Committee about the right to not attend religious instruction in schools. Dear Secretary General, We refer to your letter dated 1st of March ...
One of the issues that Atheist Ireland raised in our recent meeting with the Catholic Education Partnership was that schools are refusing to comply with the legal requirement to include in their admission policies arrangements for children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction classes. Atheist Ireland has ...
One of the issues that Atheist Ireland raised in our recent meeting with the Catholic Education Partnership was that schools are refusing to comply with the legal requirement to include in their admission policies arrangements for children who exercise their constitutional right to not attend religious instruction classes. Atheist Ireland has ...
The Court of Appeal found that, when it interprets the obligations of a Board of Management under the Education Act 1998, it must have regard to the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights. Probably no Board of Management in the country is even aware what obligations they have ...
Atheist Ireland had a constructive meeting this week with the Catholic Education Partnership, the body that coordinates Catholic education in Ireland. We met in Maynooth with chief executive officer Alan Hynes and chairperson Marie Griffin, and we have arranged a follow-up meeting to further discuss these issues: The right to ...
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 ...
The Court of Appeal in the Burke case has confirmed that schools and teachers cannot impose the values/ethos of the school on students, if those values are against the conscience of their parents. Schools and Patron bodies believe that under Section 9 (d) of the Education Act they are legally ...
The Constitution addresses the rights of parents differently in relation to religious education and sex education of their children. The executive can shape policy with regard to the content of religious, moral, intellectual, physical and social education under Article 42.1, as long as they do so in line with the wishes of parents. ...
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