Madam, – Two priests were very quick off the mark to defend Catholic control of our primary schools against the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll. Fr Andrew Carvill pointed out that in Fermoy there were six Catholic and one Church of Ireland primary school, obviously to show that this represented choice. Figures from the CSO show that there are more atheists in Ireland than Church of Ireland members, so where can a non-believer in Fermoy get a primary education free from Bronze-Age indoctrination?
Ultimately what these priests are defending is the right of supernatural churches to continue the almost compulsory indoctrination of children in State-sponsored schools by public servants and totally at the taxpayers’ expense.
This is an invisible subsidy the State gifts the churches every year to the tune of hundreds of millions of euro a year and it makes sure that priests will have a livelihood for many years to come. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Bishop Leo O'Reilly, Fr Seán McDonagh and Fr Andrew Carvill (Opinion and Letters, January 28th) are loud in their criticism of recent articles in The Irish Timeson church control of State-funded primary schools in Ireland, and in particular of the recent poll which seemed to indicate a majority in favour of a religiously neutral State school system.
The result of the poll in question is irrelevant. Church control of State-funded primary schools should end because it is fundamentally inequitable and because the domination of one religion in the sector is ultimately damaging to all of them.
When any organisation has the management of 92 per cent of our primary schools, then that organisation can truly be defined as dominant.
Domination ultimately and inexorably leads to a disregard for the concerns of others. This is shown in the proliferation of Catholic religious symbolism and in the permeation of Catholic principles though all relevant subjects in State-funded primary schools in Ireland. It is impossible for the children of non-Catholics not to suffer indoctrination under such circumstances.
Domination leads to legal anomaly, as evidenced by the exclusion of Catholic schools from certain sections of EU non-discrimination legislation.
Domination leads to contradiction, as when Bishop Leo O’Reilly argues for parental choice while denying exactly that to anyone who does not adhere to his religion.
The framers of the US constitution saw the dangers of religious domination. For that reason they instituted the establishment clause, which has been interpreted by successive US Supreme Court judges as providing a solid wall between religion, of all hues, and the state in public matters. As Fintan O’Toole has pointed out, one of the champions of this principle at the time was the Catholic Church in America because it did not want, itself, to suffer domination. Catholicism flourishes in the United States as a result.
Apologists for the current system of national schools here should study the US experience, particularly in the context of an enlightened and increasingly polyglot modern Irish population. – Yours, etc,