Saint Dominic’s College in Cabra, the Catholic girls’ secondary school that cancelled its invitation for me to speak to its final year students, has now reversed that decision. The Principal brought the issue to the Board of Management, which has decided to honour the original invitation. We now have to arrange a new date.
Atheist Ireland is pleased by this decision, as we were by the progressive and inclusive thinking reflected by the original invitation. We face a lot of prejudice and discrimination as atheists in Ireland, and it is nice to have a positive interaction to help counter that and to promote greater understanding.
You can read details here of the original invite and the cancelation.
Catholic school reinstates invitation for me to talk to its final year students
We face a lot of prejudice and discrimination as atheists in Ireland and we too face a lot of prejudice and discrimination as Catholics in Ireland. So you will be in good group Michael!
//”we too face a lot of prejudice and discrimination as Catholics in Ireland”//
Yeah…wouldn’t it be nice if Catholics were free to be Catholic, if they controlled public education, had churches everywhere, could openly walk around with crucifixes on their necks, had radio and tv channels, and whose religious leaders were constantly in the news giving advice to everyone?
Oh, wait..
(Congrats, AI!)
Saying we face prejudice and discrimination in Ireland is really stupid because by and large it’s not true. If you go looking for it you might find it built into a few old traditions and laws but they don’t affect people’s day to day life.
Ross, it’s not just “a few old traditions and laws”. Discrimination is enshrined in our constitution and in prominent pieces of legislation like the Education Act. And these laws are used to discriminate against atheists and other non-Catholics on a daily basis. Roopesh Panicker didn’t “go looking” for discrimination when he tried to enrol his daughter in his local government funded national school, for example.
Interesting. I still recall the wife of Ted Nugent and how she watched lots of movies before she died and did a practical job of donating her body to scientists. I hope Mr Ted is married.