SECONDARY SCHOOL students will not be shown sexually explicit materials or asked to watch pornography as part of sex education on the SPHE curriculum, the Department of Education has said.
In a memo published this week about sex education and the SPHE syllabus, seen by The Journal, the department says it is aware of a YouTube video that claims to shine a light on “disturbing” practices that it says will be introduced to Irish classrooms.
“It is understood that a video has been circulating suggesting that teachers will be expected to introduce certain explicit and inappropriate topics and materials in the classroom,” the memo reads.
“The Department of Education and DCU have confirmed this is categorically not the case.”
SPHE is a secondary school subject that has regularly been targeted by religious and anti-trans groups in Ireland in recent years.
The clip, titled “SPHE Teacher’s Whistleblower Interview – What Happens in the Classroom Stays in the Classroom”, was posted last week and has been viewed more than 400,000 times.
It features an interview with a former SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon, who claims to be a “whistleblower” and who says she resigned from her job because she was expected to teach extreme material to children.
The claims centre on Creedon’s attendance at a course for SPHE co-ordinators – who oversee the subject’s implementation at their school – at Dublin City University.
While on the course, she alleges that she watched a video depicting a female cartoon masturbating and other images showing sex and sexual activities between heterosexual and homosexual couples.
She also described being told about a research paper which she claims says “it’s okay to watch porn”, and outlined another exercise in which teachers are asked to critique statements that include references to orgasms and sexual activity with multiple partners.
She further suggested that pornography could be used by teachers as part of classroom-based assessments.
However, the department said it was “clearly understood that no inappropriate graphic or explicit material should ever be used in a classroom setting”.
“Teachers participating in the DCU programme will be involved in critical exploration of resources and content related to SPHE, including examples used internationally as well as material accessed by children and young adults directly,” the memo reads.
The memo also dismissed as “false” a suggestion in the video that teachers would be expected to teach or introduce pornography or explicit topics.
It said that the curriculum “categorically does not expose children to graphic or explicit content” and does not normalise the use of pornography amount secondary school students.
“On the contrary, key messages would be that pornography is not a good place to go to learn about sex, that it can be disturbing and even damaging for young people, and that it is incompatible with values of human dignity, respect and gender equality,” it adds.
The memo was issued in the days after the video was uploaded by a group called The Natural Women’s Council on 26 September.
It has been shared thousands of times on other social media platforms, including by prominent politicians, political parties and within community groups on Facebook.
The Natural Women’s Council describes itself as a “grassroots non-profit group formed to protect children, women and families in Ireland”.
Although it has a similar name and a seemingly similar mission statement, the group is a different entity and in no way associated with the National Women’s Council of Ireland, which is a registered charity that advocates for gender equality.
The group was founded by Jana Lunden, who has previously been involved in anti-lockdown protests during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has since attended anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ library demonstrations.
Lunden features prominently in the video, and introduces the clip before interviewing Creedon.
Despite describing itself as non-profit and having a section for donations on its website, a search of the Register of Charities shows that the Natural Women’s Council is not a registered charity, nor is it registered with the Companies Registration Office.
Despite claiming to be a whistleblower, Creedon has also been involved in previous campaigns against the SPHE syllabus.
In January 2023, she was interviewed on Newstalk programme The Hard Shoulder to discuss what were then proposed changes to the SPHE curriculum.
While on the programme, Creedon said that teaching children about gender identity was “flawed” and that it shouldn’t be on the SPHE curriculum.
Creedon appeared on the programme as a member of the Irish Education Alliance, another group that has claimed that teaching children about transgender people is “extreme”.
The group’s website has also guided parents to opt their children out of flu and Covid-19 vaccinations.
The video posted to YouTube last week follows a string of attempts by other groups to campaign against the SPHE curriculum, particularly around gender and sex education.
The Journal has previously debunked leaflets which claim that children will be given “pornography classes” as part of the SPHE course.
“Pornography will never, ever be shown in a classroom to students,” Eoghan Cleary – a secondary school teacher, assistant principal and SPHE & wellbeing coordinator – previously told The Explainer podcast.
“It would be illegal for any teacher to do that.”
A representative for National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCAA), which helped develop the curriculum, also told The Journal previously that parents have a constitutional right to withdraw their child from any aspect of education that goes against their conscience.
Education Minister Norma Foley was also asked about the video earlier this week, telling Newstalk that graphic material like pornography is never shown in classrooms.
“It’s been entirely misrepresented here [...] there was an absolute underpinning here that no graphic material of that nature, no explicit material of that nature would ever, ever be shown in class,” she said.
The minster added that the purpose of sex education on the SPHE curriculum was to teach students about understanding concepts such as sexual consent, respect in relationships, and the risks and distortions of pornography.
“We are supporting teachers that they will feel competent to address any questions that come up from students, but underpinning it all is that it is age and stage appropriate.”
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