Human Rights Standards Archives

March 9, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

How State Schools Break The Rules – New Report from Atheist Ireland

Atheist Ireland has published a major new report titled How State Schools Break The Rules. It explains how the Department of Education, the ETBs, and the NCCA are breaching Constitutional and Human Rights and the IHREC Act in Religious Education in ETB schools. We will be using this report as the ...

March 3, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The Constitutional right to opt out of the State religion course

ETB schools are wrongly telling students that they cannot opt out of the State religious education course at second level, and are wrongly trying to justify that by referring to a misleading clarification of a directive from the Department of Education. In February last year the Department told ETB schools ...

February 18, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

New Junior Cycle Religious Education course still breaches constitutional and human rights

The new specification for the Junior Cycle Religious Education curriculum, due to be introduced in schools in September 2019, disrespects the rights of parents who seek secular education for their children based on human rights. The new course reflects the disrespect that the State has for non-religious parents and their children. ...

January 3, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

Community National Schools learning outcomes were changed from understanding religion to respecting it

The Catholic Bishops wrote to Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) in February 2017 stating that the Goodness Me Goodness You course (GMGY) in Community National Schools did not constitute a viable programme for faith nurturing and sacramental education. This was after the Senior part of the GMGY course was ...

December 11, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The web of Catholic codes of conduct in the National Maternity Hospital and Community National Schools

While protesters were on the streets last Saturday, campaigning against Catholic healthcare codes of conduct in our new National Maternity Hospital, the State is requiring children to respect those Catholic codes of conduct in our Community National Schools. Catholic Codes of Conduct in the National Maternity Hospital The campaign against ...

December 3, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Irish schools require children to respect Vatican codes of conduct that discriminate against gay people

The Irish Times reports that Pope Francis is concerned about what he describes as the “serious issue” of homosexuality and that being gay is a “fashion” to which the clergy is susceptible. He has said that “gay people should not be accepted into ministry”. It is nothing new that the Catholic ...

October 7, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

How the State allows the Catholic Church to use the NCCA Religious Education course as a vehicle to evangelise

The Minister for Education has reversed a Circular Letter issued last February that permitted students to opt out of religion in ETB (State) schools and choose another subject. The reversal was due to the lobbying of the Catholic Church, Religion Teachers, The Association of Trustees of Catholic schools, The ETBI ...

September 16, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

How ETBs are using word play to deny students an alternative to religion

ETB Schools and teachers that refuse to implement the directive on religion issued by the Department of Education last February are telling parents that they can’t opt their child out of Religious Education and choose another subject. Their main excuses are to claim that the directive refers only to Religious ...

August 26, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

As Pope Francis visits Dublin, Jane Donnelly calls for secular schools at People Before Profit public meeting

While Pope Francis was speaking in Croke Park in Dublin, Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland was making the case for a secular education system free from Catholic Church influence. Jane was speaking at a public meeting convened by People Before Profit, about Separation of Church and State. Here is the ...

August 2, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

What should a Citizens’ Assembly on Religion in Irish schools focus on?

The Labour Party has recently proposed that we should have a new Citizens' Assembly to tackle the Constitutional issues surrounding our education system. They have not identified the particular Articles in the Constitution that we would need to look at. Atheist Ireland has consistently argued that the Constitution has failed to protect ...