Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Shutterstock / Milles Studio
Shutterstock / Milles Studio / Milles Studio
IN SEPTEMBER OF last year, just over a week after the country’s primary schools had returned from the summer break, a parent of a five-year-old sat down in exasperation to write a letter to the Department of Education.
Their child, they said, was being made to sit through religious education at the Catholic school they were enrolled in. “I am really annoyed about the whole situation,” they began.
My child has to sit everyday for half an hour looking at a book that he cannot read (he’s only five) while the teacher teaches religion to the rest of the pupils.
He’s not allowed to do anything else, just look at the book. How would you feel if it was your child? And no, I cannot take him to a different school as there isn’t [sic] any secular schools in [redacted], so he attends [redacted] senior infants.
Concluding the email, the parent asked the Department of Education one question: Could the child be withdrawn from school for the half and hour that religion was being taught?
Religious schools make up 96% of all of those operated in Ireland, and non-religious parents battle it out for a handful of places at those few non-faith schools.
Documents released to TheJournal.ie under the Freedom of Information Act show the anger of families frustrated by Ireland’s religious-based education policies.
There is a clear pattern of exasperation in the records which cover the last six months of 2015. Exasperation of not being able to access non-denominational schools, while also struggling to find places at religious primary schools.
Why are there problems with Ireland’s admission policy?
The Equal Status Act 2000 allows for admission policy to “maintain the ethos of the school”, something that in effect permits schools to give priority to children that share its particular ethos.
Appearing at a United Nations human rights review this week, new Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald was quizzed by a number of countries, including the United States, about why this is still the case.
It isn’t the first time that school’s admissions policies have come under scrutiny by the organisation. In February, a report released by the same organisation needled Ireland’s “discriminatory admissions policy” as an area of concern.
While the Department of Education’s states that “enrolment policy must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants” - many parents find that the clause protecting ethos often undermines this.
‘Parents like me are left with no school places’
Although schools are obliged to publish their admissions policies (the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill published last year makes the reasons a child is accepted or rejected from an oversubscribed school more transparent), they aren’t obliged to change them.
Many parents contacted the department out of frustration at not being able to secure a place for their child.
“I wish for my child to be educated in the inclusive environment provided in an Educate Together national school,” one parent wrote after term began last September.
Unfortunately for [redacted] they did not get offered a space at the [redacted] Educate Together school. My children are not baptised and I do not wish for them to attend a Catholic school which provides faith formation in one religion only.
Our situation is that due to existing Educate Together schools being oversubscribed, parents like myself are left either with no school places, or being left with no choice but to send our children to catholic schools against our wishes.
Educate Together has been operating in Ireland since the 1970s, and now has 77 national schools around the country.
The schools are under great demand for places (the parent went on to ask the minister to facilitate the establishment of an Educate Together school in the south Dublin area) - and currently the organisation estimates as many as 20,000 children’s names are on campaign lists calling for new schools.
Reviewing the documents, a spokesperson for the organisation said they show “the sense of real injustice many families feel in their interaction with the Irish primary education system”.
No other options
Non-denominational schools make up only 4% of schools nationally, and parents living outside of the major cities and towns often find they do not have the luxury of choice.
Back in August of last year, a 35-year-old soon-to-be father wrote to the department to say the following:
“Having been forced to move outside of Dublin to afford to live, I commute to Dublin and have set up home in a commuter town.
“There are a limited number of schools in the area and the closest one to our home and the one which I would foresee my child attending is a Catholic school, whose admission policy looks for a baptism cert for children.
I find it disgraceful that State-funded schools can still discriminate in this way and I ask you to repeal section 7 of the Equal Status Act.
The letter is signed: “A tax paying, law abiding, atheist citizen of Ireland.”
Advertisement
Another parent, describes their frustration at living in a rural area and having to have their child attend a religious school:
As a new parent myself this issue is more immediate for my wife and I, as we live in a rural area and don’t feel that the change will come soon enough for our child as the handovers of schools by the church seem to be quite slow. Soon enough we may be sending our first child to a school to be indoctrinated in a ethos/ philosophy that we don’t have.
This teacher may be an atheist but cannot admit that.
‘Sham baptisms’
Baptising children to attend school is not overtly encouraged by the Catholic church. In December of last year Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin went so far as to call it an “abuse” of the sacrament.
Still – that doesn’t stop it happening.
In one email sent to the department in June, a concerned parent slammed the practice of “sham baptisms” and said that her atheist children are “effectively barred from many Catholic primary schools”.
Although this parent chose not to baptise their child, others did decide to take this option.
“I listen with interest to the conversations about the divestment of schools. I’ve heard regularly the argument that parents don’t appear to want schools to be divested. In my experience this is not true,” begins one email.
Like most of my friends, I baptised my children so that they could go to the local school, which is just as well because the only non-denominational school in the area didn’t have space for them. I am myself an atheist.
Divestment of schools was initiated by then minister for education Ruairi Quinn in 2011, with a report published by the Forum on Patronage and Privilege in 2012, outlining steps for how the education system could cater to children of all faiths and none.
But still, despite support from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin – this hasn’t stopped other senior members of Catholic church and local schools from resisting the change.
Archbishop of Dubln Diarmuid Martin Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie
As the movement shows no sign of speeding up, it’s not only parents of almost-school-age-going children that lose sleep over the issue.
In the email – written in August of last year – the parents of an 18-month son said:
I never imagined I would ever write to a Minister’s office but we feel we are being forced to christen our child against our wishes to ensure he will be able to attend school in our area.
We feel it should be our right as parents to choose whether or not to christen our child, and that schools funded by taxpayers money should not discriminate against my child on his parent’s lack of religious ethos.
Writing to former minister for education Jan O’Sullivan, one parent had this to say:
We have friends and family, who despite having no religion themselves, have had their children openly baptised to ‘jump the queue’, sometimes in more than one religion! We do not plan on doing this.
Sitting through religious classes
Like in the case above of the five-year-old reading the book, children frequently find themselves having to sit through religious education classes once enrolled in a faith-based school.
And if they are able to leave class, there can be difficulty in providing alternative places for them.
As a spokesperson from Educate Together said: “Children from non-Catholic families who ‘opt-out’ of faith formation will continue to experience discrimination as they are removed from certain lessons.”
Writing two weeks after the start of term last year, a grandparent wrote of the experience her daughter and granddaughter had when visiting a faith school they were impressed by:
In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Committee last year, Ireland defended the school admissions policy as such:
The legislation provides that, in exceptional cases, a school can refuse to admit a student who is not of the religion of the school; provided that it can prove that this refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school.
This legal detail has been of great frustration to parents, with many pointing out the obvious contradiction in banning and allowing discrimination in the one breath.
Possible changes
If the stance around this is to change, the Irish constitution may well have to change – and that would mean a referendum.
Articles 42.4 and 44.2.4 outline that the State provides for religious education, and that it will not discriminate against a school on the grounds that it is religious. Article 44.2.5 states that each religious denomination has the right to “manage its own affairs, own, acquire and administer property, movable and immovable, and maintain institutions for religious or charitable purposes”.
It would be unfair to characterise the last government as indifferent to difficulties faced by Ireland’s non-religious parents.
In a response to TheJournal.ie, the Department of Education noted that under the last government a system was set up to allow parents to decide what type of school is set up in their local area – something that resulted in 39 out of 42 schools established since 2011 being multi-denominational.
However, for many parents this still isn’t good enough. As we head towards another enrolment cycle, the department and new minister Richard Bruton should expect another batch of emails.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Two young men die, two others seriously injured in single-vehicle crash in Donegal
Updated
24 mins ago
31.3k
Oval Office
Zelenskyy leaves White House summit after Trump claims he's 'not ready for peace'
Updated
17 hrs ago
98.5k
593
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 153 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 105 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 137 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 106 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 79 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 78 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 127 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 75 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 82 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 39 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 43 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 25 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 87 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 69 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 51 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 85 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 65 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say