Atheist Ireland has sent this briefing document to members of the Dail regarding the Committee and Report Stages today, Wednesday 2 December 2015, of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 Dear TD, Atheist Ireland is asking you to support the amendments that will be proposed today to the above Bill by Deputies Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy […]
Today the Dail will vote on the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will protect Catholic LGBT teachers at the expense of reinforcing the right to discriminate against atheist and minority faith teachers of any sexuality. Following a meeting last week with Atheist Ireland, Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party/AAA will […]
Today the Dail will vote on the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will protect Catholic LGBT teachers at the expense of reinforcing the right to discriminate against atheist and minority faith teachers of any sexuality. Please contact your TDs today to ask them to support the amendments to this Bill that will be proposed today […]
My seventh Atheist Song of the Week is another talented Australian singer and songwriter, Shelley Segal, with Saved from her album An Atheist Album. “So you think that youCan tell us how to live our livesNever questioning the sourceFrom which your moral code derivesYou think that suffering is part ofSome great plan that’s been devisedI […]
Thank you to Rev David Robertson for taking part with me in The Big Debate in Belfast about Christianity, to the Christian churches who organised it, and to William Crawley of the BBC for hosting it. Thank you also to David for his kind words about me, which I here reciprocate, on his blog post analysing the debate. There […]
This week Atheist Ireland helped a Limerick family who were denied their constitutional right to opt their child out of religious education classes in Irish schools. In two interviews today, on Newstalk Radio and Radio Kerry, Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland explains how to vindicate this right, as well as telling her own story of […]
400 people attended the Big Debate in the Stormont Hotel in Belfast last Thursday, where I and Rev David Robertson discussed whether Christianity is holding society back in Northern Ireland and generally. The debate was chaired by William Crawley of BBC Radio’s Talkback. The conversation continued the next day on Talkback, which you can listen […]
This is my sixth Atheist Song of the Week. I could have picked any of many classics by Australian comedian and composer Tim Minchin, and Thank You God captures perfectly the wishful thinking of believing in an interventionist healing god. “Fuck me Sam, what are the oddsThat of history’s endless parade of godsThat the God […]
State-funded Catholic schools are teaching senior infants that Mary said yes to being made pregnant despite being troubled, afraid and confused. I debated this with Rev Chris Hayden on RTE’s Liveline this week, hosted by Philip Boucher Hayes.
Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland talking in Limerick City Library about using human rights principles and the Schools Equality PACT to tackle religious discrimination in Irish schools. The talk was organised by the Mid West Humanists on 20 November 2015. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has made Recommendations on the Education (Admission to […]