Author Archives: Atheist Ireland

Visit the blasphemy exhibition in the Oonagh Young Gallery

The blasphemy exhibition in the Oonagh Young Gallery continues until Saturday 27 February, and is open from 12 to 6pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It’s a fascinating show, and well worth a visit.

This Wednesday at 7pm there is a special screening of Rocky Road to Dublin and The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin, which should be watched by anyone interested in secularism and censorship in Ireland.

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International Atheist Conference in Copenhagen in June

Michael Nugent and Senator Ivana Bacik will be speaking at an international atheist conference titled “Gods & Politics” in Copenhagen, Denmark, from June 18-20, 2010. It is the first Atheist Alliance International conference to be held in Europe, and is co-hosted by AAI and the Danish Atheist Society. The venue is the Royal Danish Library also known as “The Black Diamond”.

The full list of speakers is:
AC Grayling (UK)
Aroup Chatterjee (UK)
Brian Arly Jacobsen (DK)
Christer Sturmark (SE)
Dan Barker (US)
Gregory Paul (US)
Ivana Bacik (IRE)
Jens Morten Hansen (DK)
Lone Frank (DK)
Michael Nugent (IRE)
Mikael Rothstein (DK)
PZ Myers (US)
Paula Kirby (UK)
Per Bilde (DK)
Rebecca Goldstein (US)
Rebecca Watson (UK)
Richard Wiseman (UK)
Robin Ince (UK)
Simon Bressendorff (DK)
Taslima Nasrin (US)
Victor Stenger (US)

It would be great if some members of Atheist Ireland could attend this conference, as we can both get support from and give support to atheist activists and advocacy groups from other countries.

You can get further information at http://www.godsandpolitics.eu

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Thank you to Ireland from PZ Myers

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PZ Myers in Dublin promotes Atheist Ireland

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PZ Myers to speak at Atheist Ireland meeting this Monday

PZ Myers, author of the science blog Pharyngula and biology professor at the University of Minnesota, USA, will speak at an Atheist Ireland meeting at Buswells Hotel, Dublin, at 7.30 pm tomorrow, Monday 1st February.

Admission is free, and members of the public are welcome.

The theme will be the Atheist Ireland campaigns against the Irish blasphemy law, and for a secular constitution and a secular education system.

The following quote from PZ Myers about the desecration of communion hosts is among the 25 blasphemous quotes that Atheist published a month ago when the Irish blasphemy law became operational:

“You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”

While in Ireland, PZ will also be speaking about science and creationism at UCD on Tuesday Feb 2nd, and at NUI Galway on Thursday February 4th, at meetings organised by the UCD Secular Humanist Society and the NUI Galway Skeptic Society and ZooSoc. You can get details on tickets for these events, subject to availability, by emailing ucdhumanistsociety@gmail.com or k.mcinerney3@nuigalway.ie

Posted in Atheism, Blasphemy, Meetings | 3 Comments

Church and schools: the public speak

In an ‘Irish Times’ survey this week, 61 per cent of people said the Catholic Church should cede control of primary schools – and 28 per cent said it should not. ROSITA BOLAND talks to people in Portlaoise and Dublin, to explore the attitudes behind the statistics

Read more…

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BLASPHEMY: Oonagh Young Gallery Exhibition Launch on Friday

The exhibition “Blasphemy” will be launched on Friday evening 6 – 8pm at the Oonagh Young Gallery as a response to the Blasphemy Laws.

On Wednesday 10th the gallery will host a showing of the 1967 film Rocky Road to Dublin which was essentially banned for it’s portrayal of aspects of clerical domination in Irish culture.

Press release follows:

DAVID GODBOLD + FACTOTUM + NEVAN LEHART + PAUL MURNAGHAN
+ ROCKY ROAD TO DUBLIN (Wednesday 10th February 7pm)
Curated by Mary Cremin & Oonagh Young

PREVIEW 29.01.10 6 – 8PM
Read More »

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Atheists in the Pub – January

Update – Change of venue: This meetup will now take place in the Davenport, across the road from the Mont Clare.

Atheists in the Pub will be hosted on Thursday 21st at 7.30pm in the Mont Clare Hotel, junction of Clare St. and Merrion Sq. We’ll be discussing ideas for the campaign to have the blasphemy law repealed and how to widen the campaign to take in the whole area of removing faith from the constitution. We have a constitution in which rather than us having the right to worship god, god has the right to be worshipped by us. So bring pen and paper so we can leave with a list of ideas and hopefully volunteers to carry those ideas out!

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Madden leaves Church over failure of bishops to resign

Via The Irish Times

The first person in Ireland to have gone public – in 1995 – about his abuse by a Catholic priest has formally left the Catholic Church.

Andrew Madden, who was abused when an altar boy in Cabra parish in Dublin by Ivan Payne, wrote to the Dublin archdiocese before Christmas saying he wished to leave the Church. He received notice of his “cessation of church membership by formal act of defection. . .” from church authorities last week.

Read more…

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Darwin, Adam and Eve and papal infallibility

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