Two Letters, One Issue: Religious Education in Ireland
There were two interesting letters in the Irish Times published in light of changes to the upcoming Primary Curriculum in 2026, both about religion in school. One was from a host of academics and the second was from Dee from Raheny who some of you might remember from my podcast.
The two letters can be read here:
The first letter is written by a large list of academics, many of whom I know and respect. I was a student in one of the courses that some of them tutor. They made me question my thoughts on denominational education and rounded those views, and they challenged me robustly on what multidenominational education is.
All of the signaturies teach in a range of universities and offer students modules on teaching the patron programmes in the various different types of schools.
They rightly surmise that all schools in Ireland have a patron’s programme, whether denominational or multi-denominational. Most importantly they confirm that these programmes “envelope the entire curriculum” not just the 2 or so hours per school week. This cements the idea that reducing the subject of religion from 2.5 hours to 2 hours per week makes zero difference to those that have to opt out of this patron’s programme.
Religious Education or Religious Instruction or Faith Formation or The Patron’s Programme or whatever term people wish to coin is different to the other subjects in the curriculum. It is the only subject that isn’t written by the NCCA and it is the only subject that permeates all the other subjects. (As a listener pointed out on The Last Word with Matt Cooper, “Teacher, where did rivers come from?” — the answer may be different depending on the ethos of the school.)
However, the letter takes a curious turn and I’m concerned it gives an untrue representation.
It states “In reality, education about religions, beliefs, and worldviews is already an integral aspect of religious education and ethical/multi-belief and values education in Irish primary schools.” This is not a fair representation of denominational schools.
In the Catholic programme only 2 chapters of the entire 8-year Grow in Love Catholic Education Programme examine any other faith. I was asked to contribute to one of them. The two chapters, covering Judaism and Islam, do not take an objective view. Let’s be realistic, even if they did, 2 weeks over an 8-year period does not fairly represent an integral aspect of religious education and ethical/multi-belief and values education in Irish primary schools.
In all denominational schools, the core aim is to pass on the faith of that patron. This isn’t me saying that, that’s the Bishop’s Conference — and why wouldn’t they? If I was to open a school that preached atheism, why would I possibly want to do anything else other than convince the students in my school of its merits?
Dee from Raheny, I’d suggest, represents the view of most teachers. For me, she is my symbol of the vast majority of primary teachers in Ireland. I take her views very seriously.
She is supposed to dedicate 2.5 hours per week to faith formation but admits that she doesn’t fulfil her obligation. She admits that children that aren’t Catholic in her school are segregated from the rest of her class and while they might not be “twiddling their thumbs” they are separated from their peers because they are the “wrong” faith. Dee would like to see the religion removed from the primary system but doesn’t do anything about that and instead writes to the Irish Times to criticise one of the only groups campaigning to remove religion from the primary system.
In essence, Dee, like many teachers, will have promised at interview to uphold the ethos of their school. She will have promised to ensure her faith will permeate the entire school day, how she will happily prepare children for the holy sacraments of Communion and Confirmation, how she will pass on her faith to the children in her classroom through sacred spaces, prayer and dedication.
In her letter, Dee says that David Graham from Education Equality believes:
children who opt out are “left twiddling their thumbs”. Again, this does not happen in my school. Children engage in some other educational activity for that short period of time.
What Dee doesn’t see is that this is segregation. It has become such normal practice to separate children on the basis of religion that few seem to think anything of it. Can you imagine if it was any other group of children? Black children must sit at the back of the class doing work while teacher focuses on the white children, for example.
Anyway, Dee probably leaves her multicultural classroom and walks into her homogenous staff room and fails to see the disconnect — that there is no diversity within that staff room at teacher level and fails to see that the role of patronage is one of the big reasons for this.
For those of us at the backs of classrooms or those of us not able to even access the classroom because we are the “wrong faith” in 95% of schools, neither of these letters give us any solace.
Whether it’s 2.5 or 2 hours per week, whether it envelopes the entire day, whatever way people would like to normalise faith instruction in our primary schools, even Dee agrees that she wants much less of it.
The trouble is that Dee and her colleagues do nothing about that because they work in a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” system. They know if they speak out, they risk the wrath of Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, so they pretend the problem doesn’t exist. Most of them do what Dee does, which is to play along with the system. If the priest isn’t around, they’ll do very little but on Catholic Schools’ Week or during the sacraments, they’ll be happily praying their hearts out.
Meanwhile the children at the back of the class will be told to be grateful because they are welcome into the school. And for those teachers, can they not pretend just like Dee from Raheny? All they need to do is not ask any questions and just play along with the charade.
