CSCS Ireland

Formed in Feb 2015 to campaign & research on all matters involving church and state separation #separatechurchandstate
Contact: 087-2314 613

[Atheist Ireland @atheistie]

ETB non designated Community Colleges

The recent Department of Education figures show that 111,088 students are educated in multi-denominational schools. The vast majority of these are under the patronage of the ETBs and managed by them. Of the 211 multi-denominational schools, only 21 are under the patronage of Educate Together,

They are referred to as non designated Community Colleges. A WRC case a few years ago found that these colleges can have a Christian ethos if that is part of their tradition. Recent research also shows that many of these ETBs are Catholic in nature. They are certainly not secular in any way, as revealed in the research report “That’s how it works here – The place of religion in publicly managed second-level schools in Ireland”.

The vast majority of second level schools (this includes the ETB multi-denominational schools), teach religious education as a subject. If students exercise their right to not attend, no other subject is offered and they are left sitting in the religion class. They get less points in their Junior and Leaving Certificate for exercising a Constitutional right.

All second level schools are obliged under Section 15 of the Education Act 1998 to uphold the ethos of the Patron. Schools are not legally obliged to ensure that any education and teaching with regard to religion and beliefs is delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. This is a General Principal of the European Court of Human Rights.

ETB non-designated Community Colleges are not an alternative to denominational schools, they are just more of the same and they disrespect the philosophical convictions of students from atheist and secular backgrounds. They simply ignore our Constitutional and human rights.

All students at second level are educated in denominational, interdenominational or multi-denominational schools, on a take it or leave it basis. There are no non-denominational schools in Ireland with a secular ethos. None of the schools deliver education and teaching in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner and the vast majority of them discriminate on the grounds of religion.

The majority of students are not educated in multi-denominational schools, even if they were, these schools are not suitable for students from atheist and secular backgrounds because they discriminate on religious grounds and undermine our Constitutional and human rights.

Read more here

https://t.co/0TP2gkSFDL

[Mike McKillen - System Change for Climate @MikeMcKillen]

Dublin hospital chaplain wins claim for double pay on Sundays
Since this was @svuh, a publicly funded acute-care hospital, why are state funds required for chaplain services when he is already employed by @CatholicBishops? Let them take care of his fees.
https://t.co/TdzLDNzhNq

[Atheist Ireland @atheistie]

How you can help Atheist Ireland’s court case on the right to not attend religion in schools.

Atheist Ireland is taking a case to the courts in relation to the education system, and you can help if your family has been directly affected by religious discrimination in schools.

Here’s the background. We have campaigned vigorously for years to change the education system. We have sent submissions to various bodies, lobbied politicians, met the Department of Education, and attended Ireland’s examination under various UN treaties.

We have done all we can to bring about change through these measures, but the slow progress is not satisfactory for families who continue to endure disrespect and discrimination in the education system.

The Law Library has now accepted us to take a court case through its Voluntary Assistance Scheme (VAS). We have a legal team in place and have met with a solicitor with an excellent track record on human rights cases.

So where are we now? If you are a parent from an atheist and secular background, you can tell us of your experience in seeking the right to not attend religious instruction in schools. Preferably this would be a recent experience, and it can be at primary or second level. If you have correspondence from the school, this would be great but it is not necessary.

You must be willing to put your name forward, along with others, to the case, but it will not cost you anything as the case is being taken through the Voluntary Assistance Scheme.

We already have families on board from within the Atheist Ireland membership, but we can also discuss the issue with other atheist and secular parents who are experiencing discrimination, particularly where your local school refuses to allow your child to leave the religion class, or to supervise your children outside the religion class or arrange another subject.

If you are willing to speak with us, can you please contact [email protected], to see if we can use your experience to bring about change to the system so that it respects the rights of all. You can also support our legal case and our work for secularism by joining or rejoining Atheist Ireland.

[Atheist Ireland @atheistie]

The Catholic Church defines Religious Education as a process that contributes to the faith development of children. They see Religious Education as helping people to develop religious ways of thinking, feeling and doing etc.

Any Religious Education in Catholic and ETB schools reflects this definition as otherwise they would not let it into their schools.

Curriculum Religious Education at second level is not an objective course about religions and beliefs. It was not designed by @NCCAie to respect the philosophical convictions of atheists and secularists but to support the idealogical position of the Catholic church in relation to the religious education of all children.

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

Out, out from patronage of our national schools.

[Rob Sadlier 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @rob_sadlier]

“Catholic patronage of schools- The case for secularisation”

https://t.co/q3Bb1Es5CY

[Department of Education and Youth @Education_Ire]

Full Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Schools run by religious orders can be found here
➡️https://t.co/Ix6iVJxEsq

[Bernie Linnane 🏳️‍⚧️ @Berlinnaeus]

Sunday Independent...

[Atheist Ireland @atheistie]

The European Court has found that in order to respect parents religious and philosophical convictions, any education and teaching must be delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner.

This General Principle of the European court goes against the philosophical basis of catholic education. The Catholic Church object to objective education because they believe it puts the faith of catholic children in peril.

The vast majority of schools in Ireland are catholic. The state ‘provides for’ the education of minorities in catholic, multi-denominational or interdenominational schools. The state has accepted the ideological position of the Catholic Church in relation to the education of all children not just children from catholic backgrounds.

The state has put in place laws that permit publicly funded schools to deliver the state curriculum according to their own ethos. This is a reflection of Catholic Church teaching on the education of children.

There is no law or policy that obliges schools to deliver the curriculum in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. Minorities must accept on a take it or leave it basis denominational, multi denominational or interdenominational education.

Does this mean that the Irish constitution does not protect minorities in publicly funded schools?

There is no respect for parents convictions and especially families with philosophical convictions such as atheism and secularism.

Does it also mean that the Irish Constitution is incompatible with the rights guaranteed under the European convention and the other conventions that Ireland has ratified.

Why do our children leave their human rights at the school gate.

@NormaFoleyTD1 @_IHREC

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

Is this not a misuse of religion in the service of sporting victory? So did god not favour the Galway team on the day?

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

A first!

[Emer Nowlan @emernowlan]

So delighted to welcome ⁦@stmarysdorsetst⁩ to the @EducateTogether⁩ network! https://t.co/G6zwQk4h5G

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

The existing Rules for National Schools require this separation.

[Irish Times Opinion @IrishTimesOpEd]

Opinion: Religion must move outside school hours, for the sake of students and teachers https://t.co/x2CDoJcch7 via @IrishTimesOpEd

[Atheist Ireland @atheistie]

INTO votes to challenge religious discrimination against teachers. Here is what they face.

https://t.co/CTSNeJW4uw

[The Irish wolfhound @gnh_Eastwall]

This happened in Stradbally today, the driver was already banned from driving, #StPatricksDay

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

who don’t wish to be enveloped in this denominational ethos?
Their parents have a Constitutional right for their children not to receive it.
@NormaFoleyTD1

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

Draft primary curriculum.

“Denominational education refers to the entire enterprise of education offered by faith-based educational providers – as such, it cannot be reduced to a single curricular area or programme”.
So where does this leave children

https://t.co/dApzYHT5YA

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

unforgivable arrogance and breathtaking ignorance”.

[CSCS Ireland @CscsIreland]

“Unmarried mothers, victims of violence or rape, and girls without parents were all at the bottom of the pile in a horrific caste system that was both created and sustained by the Catholic church and indisputably by the majority of other women themselves. Mass murder, by means of

[BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine @RobLooseCannon]

Today, we visit a tragedy so shocking and totally preventable, as to be beyond comprehension. The firey death of 35 kids and an elderly lady in an orphanage in Cavan on this day in 1943.

PART 1/4
The Poor Clares, an austere closed order of nuns, ran the orphanage with a bare minimum of humanity. Generations of broken, vulnerable young women gave testament after they had graduated from the place where the nuns had little trace of maternal love for their young charges.

The Poor Clares founded the convent on Main Street in Cavan in 1861, eventually opening an orphanage there in 1868. The Industrial Schools Act of 1868 created an infamous system intended to turn these orphans into productive and successful members of society through work and training.

However, it resulted in an equally brutal and abusive regime. A school was built beside the convent in 1869 and St. Joseph's Orphanage & Industrial School was born.

Unlike today, when orphans would expect to be treated with compassion and education, in the 19th century, they were heavily stigmatised and provided neither education nor any emotional development.

The source of this unchristian and inhumane attitude towards them had its basis in a hatred of women who were seen as "fallen" or "damaged". Unmarried mothers, victims of violence or rape, and girls without parents were all at the bottom of the pile in a horrific caste system that was both created and sustained by the Catholic church and indisputably by the majority of other women themselves. Mass murder, by means of unforgivable arrogance and breathtaking ignorance

The night of 23rd of February 1943 was bitterly cold, despite the ferocious pitiless orange flames which licked the dark sky above St Joseph's Orphanage in Cavan. The atmosphere of sheer terror and utter hopelessness for those souls within the industrial school is impossible to fully comprehend.

Earlier, whilst the exhausted and malnourished children slept, a faulty flue or sparking wire started a small fire in the basement laundry room. It went unnoticed until it was already out of control. Acrid smoke billowed out of the windows facing Main Street, raising the alarm in the town. In terror, the orphans had all crowded together in one dormitory, and this should have been a safe rallying point for escape.

However, the nuns refused to evacuate them. Was it due to their fear that leaving would be more dangerous, or that they hesitated in confusion? No. The Poor Clare nuns decided to let 35 little girls and a woman burn to death in agony because they didn't want to let them be seen in their nightgowns in public because it was indecent.

Frantic locals outside tried to break in the front door. A girl called Rosemary Caffrey let them in. However, amid the panic and not being aware of the labyrinthine layout of the convent, the would-be rescuers couldn't locate the girls.

Rather than allowing the heroic townsfolk to evacuate the slowly suffocating and cooking little girls, the nuns ordered the people to remain outside to try to extinguish the fire.

Two locals, John Kennedy and John McNally, gained entry to the laundry. However, by then, the situation was hopeless. The inferno was too intense to reach the doomed children. McNally almost died in the fire himself but was carried to safety by Kennedy.

Now, the orphanage had been so engulfed in flames that it was impossible for anyone to get out of the front of the building or the fire escape. The window of opportunity was lost, as surely as the windows and doors of escape were barred.

The Cavan fire brigade was finally on the scene, but they were ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the disaster. their wooden ladders were too short to even reach the dormer windows.

Desperate for victims to take even the slimmest chance of escaping the painful, terrifying death, the hapless fire brigade and crowd begged the girls they could see to jump.

PART 2/4 continues...

[Children's Rights Alliance @ChildRightsIRL]

We are joining colleagues @_IHREC's offices to watch Ireland's review under #ICESCR.

[Simon Lewis 👨🏻‍🎓🎙📌✍🏽 @simonmlewis]

How much money has been gifted to religious bodies from 2018 to 2022 from capital building projects?

I made a FoI request and I got the answer.

It's €5️⃣0️⃣2️⃣m

That's €100m on average per annum of tax payers money given with no strings attached to religious bodies.

It doesn't include the capitation grants of over €100m per annum that keep these buildings heated and in good repair.

If we did, it would be safe to say approximate €1 billion was gifted to religious bodies by the State in the last 5 years.

[Brian Whiteside @briandwhiteside]

Excellent letter in Saturday’s Irish Times. If only Fr Seaver’s fellow clerics all thought like this! ⁦@edu_equal⁩ ⁦@EducateTogether⁩