First things first:

TODAY at 2:00 pm, Atheist Ireland presents “Is Anything Sacred?”, a public discussion of Irish and international blasphemy laws. Our speakers are two world-class experts on blasphemy law: Austin Dacey, Ph.D. from New York, who represents the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the United Nations; and Professor David Nash of Oxford Brookes University in England, who is working with Atheist Ireland on our campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law. Join us in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel (map) from 2:00.

If you can’t make it in person, you can still be there in spirit, as (barring technical snafus or, ahem, acts of God) we will be live-streaming the event. Go to our UStream page to view and interact. It’s a good idea to do this well before the event starts to make sure everything works on your computer, especially if you haven’t used UStream before.

If you really can’t make it in any capacity – or if it’s already too late by the time you’re reading this – you should be able to watch the event on UStream anyway, and we hope to have it on our YouTube channel shortly.

Now that’s out of the way, here’s what’s in the rest of this issue:

• News
• Upcoming Events
• Building an Ethical Society

News

• This week is Catholic Schools Week in Ireland. Like every other week, it would seem. But this week sees a special effort by the Catholic Church to celebrate the role of state-funded schools in indoctrinating children, and has seen a reaffirmation by Cardinal Sean Brady of the policy of segregating children according to the religion of their parents.
  Fortunately there is opposition to this in government; Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, a former school principal and vice-chairman of the Oireachtas Education Committee has publicly stated that “religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic”, and the Clontarf Report on “Illegal Religious Discrimination in National Schools in Ireland” has been adopted by the Dublin North Central Constituency Council of the Labour Party and widely circulated.
  Atheist Ireland has a website Teach, Don’t Preach with relevant news and resources. You can contact our Education Officer Jane Donnelly if you have any questions or can provide any help. We also have an Education and Children section on our discussion forum if you have a story to share or are looking for advice.
  This week is an ideal opportunity for individuals to lobby politicians and contact local media to highlight the discrimination inherent in the school system.
• There has been widespread concern about the introduction of new Internet copyright legislation, and its implications for free speech and the democratic process. Learn more about this law and the petition to stop it at Stop SOPA Ireland.

Upcoming Events

• Sunday 5 February, 4:00 pm, Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2 (map)
  This month’s Humanist Association of Ireland meeting will be a tribute to and discussion about the late Christopher Hitchens. This event will be co-ordinated by Maureen Meleady (member of HAI) and by Michael Nugent (chairperson of Atheist Ireland and member of HAI) All are welcome. I expect the bar will be well stocked with Johnny Walker Black Label. Details
• Tuesday 7 February, DIT Aungier Street, Dublin (map)
  Michael Nugent will be debating with Hamza Tzortzis of the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA). The topic will be “This house believes the world would be a better place without religion.” Michael and Hamza have previously debated with each other in NUI Galway, UCD and RCSI. Video extract from RCSI debate
• Thursday 9 February (tentative), Dublin
  Atheists in the Pub will be hosting our first speaker of the year, Vanessa Lacey from Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI). More details will be available soon.

Building an Ethical Society

The goals of Atheist Ireland are “building a rational, ethical and secular society free from superstition and supernaturalism.” Generally, we focus on the rational and secular aspects, and while we would probably all agree that the changes we push for would generally make society more ethical, there is obviously a lot more to an ethical society than simply teaching science and not unduly favouring religion.
We want to get your opinions on the subject: to what extent should Atheist Ireland take a stand on ethical issues not directly related to atheism and secularism? For example, should we have a position on gay rights, abortion rights, euthanasia or animal rights? Or free speech like the “Stop SOPA Ireland” campaign mentioned above? If so, what should those positions be? Should we campaign on any of these topics, or explicitly mention them in our constitution? How should we decide which issues to take a stand on? Should we just mention them from time to time so our members are informed, or should we ignore anything outside our primary aims? Add your voice to the discussion on our forum.

That’s all for this issue. If you can, try to come to one of our events.  And if not, you can still make your opinions count via our forum, Facebook page and group, and Twitter.

Till next Sunday,

Derek Walsh
Editor, Secular Sunday
Atheist Ireland
secularsunday@atheist.ie

The final report will be given to the Minister for Education later this month. If you live in Ireland, please contact the Minister and your local TDs, and say that you want the Minister to respect the rights of secular parents when he responds to the final report.

We must respect human rights of parents who want secular schools

Most of the 3,300 primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are run by church patrons, about 97% by the Catholic church. These schools use an integrated curriculum, in which Catholic teaching permeates every subject. They are legally allowed to discriminate on religious grounds, and it is often impossible for parents to opt their children out of religious
instruction.

Soon the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism will advise Education Minister Ruairi Quinn on how to ensure a more diverse range of school patrons. On the surface the Forum seems to be moving in the right direction, but its interim report proposed a gradual approach that will not in practice vindicate the rights of nonreligious parents.

In particular, the Forum does not seem to appreciate the legal obligation to respect the human rights of parents who want a secular education for their children. This right is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights has upheld it. Also, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has told Ireland to make secular schools more widely available throughout the state.

A secular school is not the same as either a religious school or an atheist school (if such a school existed). Secular schools teach children about all of the the different beliefs that exist, in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. Ideally the State should run secular schools directly, but the most important thing is that all schools must be run in a way that respects the human rights of all parents, children and teachers.

This means including effective remedies that enable people to vindicate their rights in practice, not just in theory. Parents cannot in practice vindicate their right to opt their children out from religious instruction, if they have to personally come to the school to supervise the children during that period. Teachers cannot in practice vindicate their right to freedom of conscience, if schools are legally allowed to discriminate on grounds of religious ethos.

When the interim report was launched, Father Michael Drumm said that Catholics would have difficulties attending multi-denominational prayer services. He is of course correct. They should not have to do this. And neither should non-Catholics have to attend Catholic prayer services.

The Forum’s interim report also fails to include several specific recommendations made by the Irish Human Rights Commission such as amending the Employment Equality Acts to ensure respect for the private life of teachers. The Forum should include all of these recommendations in its final report.

The key tests of the final report will be whether its advice includes effective remedies that make it enforceable in practice, whether all schools must convey all parts of the curriculum in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner, and whether secular schools are to be made widely available in all regions of the State.

Atheist Ireland has responded to the interim report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism. The Forum is to send its final report to the Minister for Education by the end of December.

We have four overriding recommendations for the final report.

* To comply with your terms of reference, your advice must be stronger and must be enforceable. You are mandated to advise on how best to “ensure” that certain outcomes can happen, not simply on how best to make those outcomes more likely.

* The final report must include effective remedies that enable parents and students to vindicate in practice and law their right to ensure that the education of their children is in conformity with their convictions, as enshrined in Human Rights treaties and based on rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

* Whatever their model of patronage, the State must ensure that all schools convey all parts of the curriculum in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner”, as recommended by the Irish Human Rights Commission, as enshrined in the Toledo Guiding Principles, and as ruled on by the ECHR.

* Ensuring “a sufficiently diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions and none” must in practice ensure that secular non-denominational schools are widely available in all regions of the State, as noted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

We also make other specific recommendations throughout the response, including on ERB, opting out, the right to private and family life and access to schools.

You can read our full response here.

It’s on our campaign website for a secular education, TeachDontPreach.ie.

Atheist Ireland submission to Department of Education on school enrolment

We were questioned by the Advisory Group to the Forum, which consists of Chairperson Dr. John Coolahan, Professor Emeritus at NUI Maynooth; Dr. Caroline Hussey, former Registrar and Deputy President, UCD; Fionnuala Kilfeather, former Chief Executive of the National Primary Parents Council; and the Secretary to the Forum, Breda Naughton.

You can read the summary on our secular education campaign website Teach Don’t Preach.

We were questioned by the Advisory Group to the Forum, which consists of Chairperson Dr. John Coolahan, Professor Emeritus at NUI Maynooth; Dr. Caroline Hussey, former Registrar and Deputy President, UCD; Fionnuala Kilfeather, former Chief Executive of the National Primary Parents Council; and the Secretary to the Forum, Breda Naughton.

You can read more details about this session on our secular education campaign website Teach Don’t Preach.

The Mater Dei Institute is at it again.

Link to the pdf of their Submission to the Forum on Education

In their Submission to the Forum on Education they again recommend the Toledo Guiding Principles but state that this education cannot be adequately described by the use of the terms such as “objective”.

These people even quote from the Toledo Guiding Principles but conveniently leave out Page 68 – State neutrality and opt out rights.

“Under International Standards, states have considerable latitude with respect to providing religious education but may not seek to indoctrinate pupils in a particular worldview through the educational system against the wishes of the pupils’ parents. The European Court of human Rights has made clear that:-

The State, in fulfilling the functions assumed by it in regard to education and teaching, must take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. The state is forbidden to pursue an aim of indoctrination that might not be considered as not respecting parents’ religious and philosophical convictions. This is the limit that must not be exceeded.

The State may satisfy this duty of neutrality either by designing a curriculum that is itself sufficiently impartial and balanced or, in those instances in which the state provides instruction in a particular religion or belief, by granting rights to opt out on the ground of conscientious objection. This right must be realizable in practice, and not a mere theoretical possibility. Moreover, the requisite neutrality would be compromised if pupils were subjected to any disadvantage discrimination or stigma on account of the exercise of this right to be exempted from such classes, or elements of classes.”

What do they not understand about the words ‘objective’ and this is the limit that must not be exceeded. This is something that we must be very careful about as Atheist Ireland supports the Toledo Guiding Principles. We need to ensure that if the Toledo Guiding Principles are introduced it is not the Toledo Guiding Principles according to the Mater Dei Institute which is a foundation of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Michael Mpagi Kirumira from AAU was unable to make it to the Conference at the last minute, but he sent us his speech which was read out to the audience by Stuart Bechman. We also have the script of Roger Lepeix of ILCAFT who addressed the Conference as well.

Hello Fellow Atheists,

Greetings from the Atheist Association of Uganda. It’s a pleasure to know that we, in Uganda can have a chance to write to this congregation of bright minds. It’s very hard to imagine how life is with other people who see life just as we see it. This was going to be my speech – had I made it to this event! A friend of mine, once told me that there’s only two curses, one is to be born in Africa and to be poor (I do not believe in strong holds and curses but to give you a greater understanding, I have used the words.) Since year 2000, I have received many invitations to speak in conferences, but all my visas are denied, simply because I am poorer – most EU states, Australia, USA and Canada, all think that I will remain in their country. Am not sure why they judge me like that.

Am writing from Uganda, a country whose president (President Museveni), his wife, and the first daughters, are pastors and run a church alongside the State issues. Their church is called The Covenant Nations Church. This church is under Museveni’s daughter Patience Rwaboogo Museveni who is a pastor and her church service airs on LTV here in Kampala. Museveni’s supporters have now created a cult that you may call “Musevenism”. Museveni himself is like a god. We have heard President Museveni himself telling Ugandans to trust and respect God by not challenging him on many issues failing our country. His wife Janet Museveni is the patron of all Pentecostal churches of Uganda and when she was running for Member of Parliament for Ruhama county, she told the masses that she is being sent by God to run for a political office and that she has God’s phone number. Despite of all those allegations, their regime is the most corrupt and oppressive Government. In simple terms, it’s a group of criminals running the Nation’s affairs and, worst of it all, they are supported by Ireland, USA, Australia, and many more. Since year 1994, President Museveni has donated public funds worthy millions of shillings to religious groups and is publically proud of it.

Mrs Museveni is a minister in charge of Kalamoja, a far North eastern parts of the Uganda, where famine and hunger are killing citizens, people there are eating mango leaves. No food and we do not hear her praying for rains. Since she came into the Parliament of Uganda, she moved two bills that made 8th October National Prayer Day and it’s a public day in Uganda ahead of National Independence Day which comes on 9th October of each year.

Uganda is a very hard place to live in. In addition to the failing powerless state institutions, in Uganda’s media, 80% of all the information broadcast, both on air and in print is religiously connected. We have more than 30 radio stations purposely built to promote religion and President Museveni. All powers are in the hands of the President; nothing can be done without his endorsement.  Even the secular media houses made 75% of their broadcasting religious. Then we have the unfriendly bullying religionists both women and men, younger and old, Islamites and Christians stand on every street of Kampala shouting to passers-by to turn to their gods  from morning to evening praying for a decaying city which they branded the “city of God”. Many people contribute money to them.  Standing on the corner preaching is like a job.  We have churches and mosques turn their outside loud-speakers to maximum decibels from dusk to dawn, competing with one another ……..Oh Uganda!

AAU is a national educational charity supporting and representing people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Our vision is of a world without religious privilege or discrimination. We promote Atheism, Humanism, and campaign for an open society, a secular state, and work with others of different beliefs for the common good.
We make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We take responsibility for our actions and base our ethics on the goals of human welfare, happiness and fulfillment. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves, individually and together.

Our values and goals are the same as those expressed by the British Humanist Association in their blog of 21 March 2009, we agree with the principals of the Australian Atheist Foundation and we are affiliated with the Atheist Alliance International.
We stand for 1) teaching of secular values in education, 2) Phasing out of government funding for religious schools, 3) removing religious references from statutory oaths and pledges, 4) Abolishing parliamentary prayers, 5) Ending state support for religious institutions and religious personnel, and 6) removal of tax advantages for religious institutions as Bill Buehlenberg pointed them out in his article written on 03 January 2006 and published in Culture Watch.

We stand against religious indoctrination of minors, the wearing of religious attire in schools, Government support or endorsement of any religion or favoritism of any belief whatsoever and the religious dominance of the National Broadcasting cooperation.
The list is endless. Having mentioned all of that, I take this pleasure to announce that AAU is paving a way to take a private bill to the parliament of Uganda calling for greater changes of the constitution to embrace suitable laws determining the separation state from religions. We would appreciate your support of any kind where necessary.

Talking of those issues sounds like an easy task in western countries, but in Africa, mostly because they have not been here, some people in western countries know very little about us and the general continent of Africa. Writing about  the situation in Africa makes my heart ache and inflames the stomach ulcer that I get from anger and feelings of impotence that I got after failing to achieve change throughout the great journey of activism in which I engaged myself for the past 10 years.
However, I’m not discouraged.  I have promised my heart to continue until change comes to Africa. My desire is to stop the selfish horrors of humanity around the world. This speech would have been longer but due to time, allow me to stop here.
Kirumira Mpagi Micheal (Mr)

Former Church planter/Missionary and now President of Atheist Association of Uganda

P.O.Box 72244, Clock Tower Station, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa.

www.aauganda.net

Presentation by Roger Lepeix -ILCAFT

Good afternoon,

Thank you for inviting me for this presentation of ILCAFT (International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Free Thinkers) and its plans, in particular the rebuilding of an International Association of the Free Thought, scheduled on August 10 th, 2011 in Oslo.

As you know the Free Thought movement has existed for a long time, in fact for a much longer time than the major monotheistic religions against which we are fighting now.

As an organized body, the Free Thought was established around 1848, and the foundation of an International Association of the Free Thought was set up as early as 1880. The most important world congresses were those of 1904 in Rome and 1905 in Paris.

In September 1904, in Rome, within a few yards from the Vatican, more than 3,000 Free Thinkers, Atheists, and open minded people from thirty countries gathered and debated the separation of religions and the state, the role of science, etc… Representatives from these countries as well as well-known scientists attended and took part in the debates. For example, 300 delegates came from Spain – a very religious country – and more than 800 delegates came from France. The outcome of that Congress was the vote of a document defining what the Free Thought is. A demonstration was organized on this occasion, with more than 30,000 people marching in the streets of Rome.

The next Congress in 1905 was an important landmark in the struggle for the separation of religions and the state, notably with the vote of the 1905 law in France, on December 9^th.

The many ensuing difficulties have caused the Free Thinkers and their organizations to scatter; the converging process, necessary for an international and efficient action, has just begun.

In 2001, a Manifesto was published and endorsed by Atheists and Free Thinkers’ organizations from both sides of the Atlantic. The organization Atheist Alliance was then closely associated in the process.

We had to wait until 2005, on the occasion of the IHEU Congress at Paris for the centenary of the French 1905 law, when a Congress gathered and created the International Liaison Committee of Atheists and Free Thinkers. 150 Atheists and Free Thinkers from 23 countries laid the basic foundation of an international grouping with the aim of reviving the Congresses of 1904 and 1905.

ILCAFT has met several times, always on the occasion of IHEU meetings. The IHEU First Vice-President Roar Johnsen is here, and he explained this morning what IHEU is. Indeed, ILCAFT believes that IHEU is the right place to shelter all the Humanists, including Atheists and Free Thinkers as the heirs of 1904, who consider themselves generally as the most determined wing. By the way, it is within IHEU that ILCAFT is planning to rebuild an International Association of the Free Thought.

Let’s have a closer look at the matter.

All Humanists agree to demand that those who wish to think freely have a right to do so and express their views. They should be allowed to organize on this basis and have their say. They should be granted the right to live according to their lifestyles.

Are Atheists, Humanists, Free Thinkers just another community, alongside believers’ communities of different faiths? This is where the first differences start, which explain why Free Thinkers should organize by themselves, in the tradition of 1904.

Free Thinkers advocate equal rights for every citizen in every country. This is an objection against communalism, because wherever there are communities, rights tend to be different between those who belong to different communities and also those who do not belong to any community. Equal rights require complete separation of the State and the different religions and ideologies, because any other system would grant different rights to the citizens. Therefore the absence of recognition of religions and ideologies by the State is required and consequently the absence of public funding for religious activities. That point marks a very important difference between Free Thinkers, in line with the 1904 Congress, and the other Humanists. We have to be aware of what we stand for: equal rights or inequality.

In our views, as Free Thinkers, separation of Religions and the State means defence of freedom of conscience and equal rights for citizens. It is contrary to communalism. Communalism divides citizens and tends to oppose citizens against each other.

As early as 1845, Thomas DAVIS, one of the founders of Young Ireland, wrote on this:

“At the meeting following the publication of the bishops memorials, he declared that they have pronounced the nefarious scheme dangerous to faith and morals, and affirmed that it must be rejected utterly. Let there be separate colleges in separate cities for Catholic, Protestants and Presbyterians, and no education in common…”

Thomas Davis was an anglican.

For the same reason, Free Thinkers want to eradicate all religious or ideological indoctrination in public education, I mean in schools that receive public funds from the taxpayers. This is also a major issue because that means that we also refuse public funds to teach Atheism, for instance. The consequence of the rejection of all indoctrination is that we do not allow to ourselves what we deny to others, and that includes any public financing of partisan education, whether religious, Atheistic, Free Thinkers or else. Many Humanists are not ready to accept that.

Free Thinkers, the heirs of the 1904 and 1905 World Congresses, do not only stand for the right to be an Atheist or a Free Thinker, they also stand for emancipation of humankind from any religious, political, economic or military oppression. For Free Thinkers, as an heritage from the 1904 and 1905 World Congresses, the aim is not to gain a position for Free Thinkers or Atheists, but also and may-be essentially, to change society so as to put an end to that religious, political, economic and military oppression. That is the reason why we are so clear on the demand for separation of religions and the States. That is also why we include economic emancipation of humankind; it is the current economic system, based on the concentration of the wealth and means of production in an ever reduced number of hands, which leads to poverty for three quarters of Human beings, including in so-called developed countries.

I believe that those questions are or will be also at the core of your concerns and debates. ILCAFT has been informed of your Copenhagen Declaration and has expressed its overall agreement. It is the same for the draft of the Dublin Declaration, at least the version A which is better regarding education. Of course we are standing on very close grounds, and that justifies our proposal to work together. ILCAFT understands the desire of Atheist Alliance International to set up a strong international organization; we understand that particularly since we have the same goal. The dispersion of organizations and of Atheists and Free Thinkers activists is so important that all efforts should be made to help regroup them, your efforts as well as ours. Shall we go towards a single organization in the future? Who knows? Anyway, our responsibility in the upcoming period is to work together, and every time it is possible, to wage joint campaigns for the separation of religions and the States, and campaigns against the influence of religions.

And there are plenty of fields of struggle for the separation of religions and the State, for example here in Ireland. As early as in 2005, Liz O’Donnell declared: “We should put an end to the special relationship between the Church and the State in Ireland”. More recently, Ivana Bacik, who was here on Friday, declared: “The time has come to separate the Church and the State. The time has come to campaign for a secular constitution which would represent the pluralistic character of society”. We have to join hands to wage this campaign to separate religions and the State, to put an end to this reminiscence of the Middle-Ages that is called the offence of blasphemy. And what is true in Ireland can be applied anywhere else, in Nepal, in Bolivia, in Europe and even in France where there are serious and numerous attacks against the 1905 Separation Law.

Such campaigns have already been planned by the future International Association of the Free Thought. The main ones will be:

• For the separation of religions and the State in every country, with its own peculiar features in each country, and relying on existing local organizations.
• A campaign against religions that dominate society nowadays: against their public financing, taking into account for example the works that Max Wallace has published in his book “The Purple Economy”.
• Against communalism, which is pitting the peoples against one another in the name of differences, whether religious, ethnical or else.
• In defence of civil liberties against the implementation of the clerical principle of subsidiarity in institutions such as the European Union.
• On social issues, with peoples thrown into famine by financial mechanisms led by markets and credit rating agencies.

On all those campaigns as well as on others, Free Thinkers, Atheists and Humanists should work jointly in order to be efficient and actually change the world. In order to do so structures of debats are necessary. We have to build them.

This is just the beginning of the discussion. To go further in the debate, every occasion should be seized. That’s the reason why, ILCAFT invites Atheist Alliance International to come and express their voice at Oslo this August 10 th, even as an Observer if you prefer.

What do we want to do at Oslo this August 10 th ?

In the first place, we want to gather Atheists and Free Thinkers to debate on the current situation in the fields of freedom of conscience and the separation of religions and the States. From the Americas, both North and South, from Europe and from all the continents, delegates will hear and discuss speeches in English, French and Spanish. They will discuss and adopt the draft of a Manifesto in defence of freedom of conscience. They will clarify their aims, and launch an International Association of the Free Thought. They will define the type of co-operation that they wish to set up with the other international organizations, particularly with IHEU within which they want to become a section. And eventually, they will adopt preliminary by-laws and elect provisional leaders to make this International Association of the Free Thought actually running.

To date, we know that more than twenty countries will be represented at the meeting to launch the International Association of the Free Thought on August 10 th, in Oslo. We have invited broadly Atheists and Free Thinkers to come and debate and build together this International Association. Very recently, ILCAFT participated in the 2011 Convention of American Atheists at Des Moines, Iowa, and the outcome was very positive. American Atheists President, David Silverman will be present at Oslo and he will take the floor. And that is also the reason of my speech today.

Let’s meet, debate and wage joint campaigns that are needed today, in defence of freedom of conscience and promote the separation of religions and the States.

You are welcome at OSLO on August 10 th.

Thank you.

One father, whose young child has been shunned by his local community, had this to say:

“People seem to think that I was motivated by wanting to cause trouble, but they have no idea of the lengths I went to to try to solve the problem before going public with it. They don’t know the full story, and they don’t seem to want to find out. It’s very strange that over a difference in opinion, a child gets punished. I’m very surprised by that. I thought we could all just agree to differ and move on, but apparently not.”

Read the whole article here.

Parents interested in finding out more about this issue and their rights can do so by emailing us here, joining our forums or finding us on Facebook.

Today’s judgment lays down many important points of human rights law in favour of secularism, and it leaves open the possibility of further legal challenges about crucifixes in classrooms where the overall school environment is not secular.

The judgment highlights the obligation of States to convey school teaching in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner, enabling pupils to develop a critical mind particularly with regard to religion in a calm atmosphere free of any proselytism.

The Court found that it is up to each State to decide how to treat this issue, as long as they do not exceed the limit of pursuing an aim of indoctrination that might be considered as not respecting parents’ religious and philosophical convictions.

In this particular case, because the Italian education system is already secular, with an overall school environment that respects all religions, and because the crucifix is not associated with compulsory teaching of Christianity, it found that the display of a crucifix could be seen as a passive symbol.

But these circumstances are not the case in Ireland, where most primary schools are not religiously neutral, but have a religious ethos that permeates the entire school day, and where the Catholic Church itself accepts that the right to opt out of this religious ethos is not always possible in practice.

Just last week the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination “noted with concern that the education system (in Ireland) is still largely denominational and is mainly dominated by the Catholic Church.” This is the fourth time in recent years that UN bodies have raised the issue of freedom of conscience in Irish schools.

Also significantly, the Court today rejected the argument by Italy that the crucifix is not a religious symbol, but is a cultural and ethical one. This is an important victory for secularism, as it prevents religious symbols from being introduced by stealth into secular environments.