How does one start an article on such an emotive topic? The best advice is usually to stick to the facts, but as with anything relating to religion, facts are not necessarily the most important thing. However, whatever way one wants to colour it, the Catholic Church stood by idly while hundreds of their clergy … Read more
Yes, you have read this correctly. In 2019, a teacher can legally be fired due to their religious values. Despite an attempt to remove this right in recent years, it was voted down by the then Fine Gael/Labour government. Whether or not this right has been exercised, is not the point. The fact remains that if … Read more
During the recession, it was decided that we had far too many Teacher Training Colleges and it was time to amalgamate them. Hibernia College was exempt as a private entity but the others were all fair game and were absorbed into various universities. One such amalgamation was in DCU where the old St. Patrick’s College … Read more
Choice. This is the word most used to combat my argument that we should scrap the patronage model. When it comes to education, it seems that almost everyone thinks they should have a choice of the flavour of school their child should go to. I honestly can’t understand why this would be. I don’t get … Read more
Despite our country’s education system beginning with a non-denominational model, Ireland’s primary education system is almost completely controlled by church bodies, with 96% of schools having a religious body as their patronage. 90% of schools have the Catholic Church as their patron body. All of the rest but 3 have a Christian patron body. In … Read more