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 ...
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 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. ...
The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, has just given a telling example of how the Department of Education gives privilege to religious parents over nonreligious parents in Irish schools. As Carl O'Brien reports in the Irish Times, the Minister has stressed that parents have a right to ensure that their ...
This is from the Admission policy of Larkin Community College, a second level ETB school. There is no legal basis for the supposed distinction it makes between religious instruction and religious education. It is important to understand that our school does not provide ‘religious instruction’ and therefore the need to ...
Atheist Ireland has for years been raising the issue of objective sex education with the United Nations. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child included the following in its recent concluding observations about Ireland: Adolescent health (b) Integrate comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health into ...
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 ...
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