Atheist Ireland Forum

The Minister for Education, Mary Hannifin, seems to think that Ireland is some kind of Catholic rock existing on the edge of Europe, insulated from all modern needs. This clip from RTE News, Wed. Sept. 5th.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0905/6news_ ... 5,null,230

The UN warned the government, two years ago, that religious discrimination was also racial discrimination. They did nothing and are doing nothing.

CitizenPaine

So let me get this straight...

1) She's against secular schooling and future plans to deal with multiculturalism include setting up more faith schools for minority religions...

2) She's defending the right of all said religious schools to discriminate against children who are not members of the religion of the school...

It follows that non-believers are under pressure to bow down to the authority of a religion just so they can get a place in a school that they'd probably prefer to not have to place their children in anyway.

How is this government not a recruitment agency for the roman catholic church?

I'm tired of Atheists telling me it's perfectly ok to send your kids to a catholic school. It absolutely is not. This kind of thing can only happen when nobody speaks out about it. how many other minority groups are happy enough to sit back and get fucked all over like this?

Rant over. Damn this makes me angry.

I totally agree, and something must be done about this right now because it's about time.Anyone who's opposed to Hannafin's idea should stand against it, but any suggestions how we'd go about preventing it?

All we have to do is let them know we exist and don't intend to continue being screwed over. There are many ways to go about this. I suggest sending letters. If we can get enough people to mail Mary and Bertie we might just get noticed. This kind of thing is likely to be taken more seriously than something like a petition due to the additional effort required.

But I'm open to other ideas if anyone has any.

I saw that on the news yesterday and was shocked at her almost aggressive response. On one hand she is perfectly happy to leave the State funded and State responsibility of primary education in the hands of a foreign run religious cult and in the same breath defends the 'right' of this cult to 'protect their ethos'.
I found it a bit sinister that RTE devoted half of their piece on the 'success' of a school in Clare where 1/3rd of the pupils come from an immigrant background. A totally irrelevant smokescreen that distracted from the fact that it's in Dublin that parents aren't able to find places for their children in the local national schools.

A friend of mine's child started school this week. They hadn't been able to find a non catholic school with room to take their child despite applying everywhere since the child was born 4 years ago. He started on Monday and they've already started teaching him prayers. How depressing.

Andrew

I've just sent this off to the Min of Ed by email on the basis that "it's better to light a candle than to rage against the dark", which I'm told is an old Chinese proverb.

CitizenPaine

With respect, bph, you are very naieve if you think that's going to work. The first thing you must realise is that you are dealing with sociopaths (people who don't care about anything or anyone except themselves). That's what a sociopath is!



I've got a few, but the first one I would suggest is, separate yourself from the nutjobs who have a stranglehold on this country. That way you won't be sucked into playing their parasitic game!

I think the problem is we've always had a 'minister' for education

I sent this letter to Eamon Ryan before the election

Dear Mr. Ryan,

As a 33yr old in South Dublin I gave you my first preference vote
in the last general election and will do so again on the 24th of May.
As an Atheist who is planning on having children in the next few years
I am concerned about the lack of schooling available to children
outside the Catholic/ National school system. Is the provision of
non-denominational national schools an issue within the Green Party?
I would assume, given the educated profile of the party's support,
you would have many atheists among your members and voters.

Regards,

And received this reply:

Dear Andrew,

Many thanks for your email.

I agree with you on the need for changes in our education system to reflect the greater diversity in religious, and cultural backrounds in Ireland today. The departure of many religious orders from the education system should allow for a review of how the state supports and manages many of our primary and secondary schools. Unfortunately, the Department of Education seems to have very little vision in how such a change might happen. Rather than continuing with the status quo and ignoring the real changes which have occurred in Ireland over the last twenty years. I believe we should be looking at innovative new school management systems

'Educate Together' is already working to provide multi- denominational primary schools in Ireland. They currently have 19 schools in Dublin, one of which is in Rathfarnham. They are expanding every year and are working hard to get the Department of Education and Science to commit to provide the new schools that are needed across the country.

The Green Party recognises that new schools will require new resources. We have committed to investing €1 billion in addtional current and capital funding for education for the first year of the next Governments term of office, to front load educational prorities, and then draw up a ten year funding plan. We would also increas investment in the school building and refurbishment programme by €269m. Through this we would endeaver to support organisations such as Educate Together in their efforts to increase the number of multi-denominational schools in Ireland.

I have pasted below an extract from the Green Partys 50 Steps to Better Education document which outlines these plans. You can read the full policy on http://www.50steps.com.

If I can be of any further assistance to you on this or any other issue please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Eamon Ryan TD

I'm going to ask him as a member of the current government how he's getting on with his 50 steps and what Mother Superior Hanafin thinks of them

Andrew

Ps...yes ..I voted green and yes it's my fault that Fianna Fail are still in government...sorry

I'm not bitter enough and too young to take a defeatist attitude. There's always hope. Even if it means sitting around and waiting for a few dinosaurs to fossilise.

1. Join the humanist association for a start, it's only €20 a year. They at least are in the position of having a submission accepted by the government.

http://www.irish-humanists.org/

2. Join Amnesty International. Everyone who joins gives the Cathloic Church Limited a poke in the eye. The CCL is campaigning against AI because they changed their stance on abortion.

In other words don't just sit there...........

I've read the 50 points and I'm wondering where it says anything about religion and national schools. Perhaps we could motivate the Green Party to take on this challenge. It's worth a try. At least they seem to be giving some attention to the whole question of education.

CitizenPaine

the problem with promising X billion or million is that it not very clear what it means. labour or the greens or other parties should have policy of 100% school funding, thats much clearer.

the state are never going to do the job.. are there any organisations based around getting full funding for schools? thats what needs to be set up.

I know ET must be doing lot of work on this, but may have to stay out of some things as not to get involved in politics too much, and ET are working on bases of being patrons and having to come up with resources for the school themselves, even the new VEC (pillar of the community) patronships won't solve this, although I'd like to see more details on that funding.

This letter appeared in the Irish Times today (Thursday Sept. 13th 2007), written by a GP in Diswellstown.

"Look to the children, Minister: They do not discriminate against each other and we should not teach them to do so"

CitizenPaine

This is very very worrying