Atheist Ireland Forum

When my computer was down yesterday, I went online at Cork City library and visited the RichardDawkins.net site. The home page came up, but if you clicked on any of the article-titles (which head discussions on the site), a message popped up saying that the page was blocked due to 'hate speech' according to the policy of the City Council.

It didn't matter whether the articles in question were about science or religion, or that most of them were in widely circulated newspapers such as the Telegraph and Independent.

Some religious busybody in the background, censoring Dawkins!

Wonder if you can look up The Daily Mail.

Going to have to look into this, thanks for letting us know.

Interesting. Will pop into the library when I have the time to check this out.

Dear Corkonians, do please check into this as it is very important that we put a stop to it. The Catholic Church as an institution is in decline but its opperatives in the Dept of Ed, RTE and many other arms of government are from throwing in the towel.
I must check at my own library and see how widespread it is?
Can you check Catholic and Islamic sites as well?

Going to head down to the library within the hour. I shall report back post haste.

Just back from there and yes it is blocked due to "hate speech". Westboro Baptist Church is also blocked but the websites for the Iona Institute, some Irish Christian Organisations and two Islamic sites aren't blocked. I spoke to someone behind the counter about it and he said it's likely because of a certain key word that's being automatically flagged by the software that they have installed on the computers. He tried to phone someone upstairs about it but they weren't there. He was rather apologetic about it all. I filmed it all too just in case.

I passed this on to The Examiner earlier in the day; maybe you would follow up and contact them as well?

Any idea what the magic word that excites the censors is?
It can't be 'god' or any relgious term as the Catholic sites are available and if this site is also available, it can't be 'atheist' or 'grumpy gits' (sorry, couldn't resist). So, is it somethinig in the science area? How about 'evolution'? Baffling!

I'll get on to the Dawkins site now and let him know. I'm sure he can raise a good stink over this.

Well i'm not sure it's anything sinister. I've used computers before which had similar software and even the most mundane word in the address of the website would block it. Then again I could be wrong. Like I said though, I recorded the whole thing.

Hi Byron,
It may not be sinister but much of the prejudice we non-believers endure in Ireland is practised by very nice, well-meaning people, who just don't realise that they are trampling on the rights of others.
The chairmen who see no harm in a 'little prayer' before the meeting, the scout leaders who parade the kids to mass, the sports organisations who call on Father Pat to say 'a few words'... It's not sinister but it needs to be addressed.
Some public servant caused, wittingly or unwittingly, Richard Dawkins's sensible and scientific website to be censored. This needs to be reversed.
I don't suppose you could check back with the library and see if they have put it right? Meanwhile, I hope to visit the big town over the weekend and will see what result I get at the local library.
Regards, F.
PS I've always admired your poetry.

I e-mailed Patsy McGarry of the Irish Times with a link to this discussion.

Nothing like getting an investigative journalist on the case. Patsy McGarry contacted the people in Cork and was told there is no problem with the Dawkins site. This does not tally with the conversation Byron had with the librarian nor his direct experience of not being able to access the Dawkins website.

Patsy spoke to John Mullins (john_mullins@corkcity.ie) and said anyone with concerns should feel free to contact him. Given that I'm learning of this 2nd hand, perhaps Byron, you could e-mail him and tell him of your experience and your discussion with the librarian and see what he has to say. If it's of interest or contradicts your direct experience I could send his reply back to Patsy McGarry to see what he makes of it.

well done beebub. Wonder how this will evolve.

Fear,

Did you get in touch with the Dawkins site? Did they have anything to say?

That's interesting. I'll fire off an email later on tonight so saying that I went in to the library to see if it was true etc. Will let you know how I get one.

Just to clarify something, you can access the website. The homepage comes up fine but it's when you click on any of the links that they are blocked/censored. I chose a few random links on the site and none of them worked.

Edit: Email sent. Here's a copy of what I sent.

Well done Bryan.

Let us know if he replies.