In Ireland, 90% of primary schools are Catholic. This religious domination of public education is anomalous in a developed nation. It does not meet the needs of Ireland’s increasingly diverse population, or of the many citizens – religious or otherwise – who would rather that Catholicism was not afforded a privileged place in public life.

In 2012, a government report recognised the need for change and recommended that some schools divest their religious patronage. Progress has been slow. Though the church agrees that some divestment is necessary, at local level it is reluctant to cede power.

After a survey of parents of pre-school children in an area of Dublin apparently indicated that more than a quarter wanted multi-denominational education for their children, it was decided that one of the eight local Catholic primary schools should divest. In response, three Catholic schools circulated leaflets containing misinformation: that the loss of religious patronage would mean an end to the schools marking Christmas, Easter and even Halloween; the axing of healthy eating programmes and book clubs; the devaluing of grandparents; censorship of the Irish language; lack of safety on school tours; a drop in the standard of education; the imperilment of teachers’ jobs – in short, to “a Brexit-type disaster”.

The government must reassure parents that divestment will not disrupt their children’s education

Joe McHugh, the minister of education, has condemned this “inaccurate information” and took the unusual step of publicly asking the Catholic schools “not to issue claims that have no basis in fact”.

“Pancake Tuesday won’t be banned. Nor will holidays or celebrations associated with the ancient Celtic/pagan festival of Halloween.”

Incomprehensibly, the state all but handed over administration of the divestment process to the church. The result? Catholic schools denied parents any objective information on alternative patrons, then warned them that if they voted for divestment there would be no opportunity to reconsider once they learned details of the proposed replacement.

Who in their right mind would vote for change under those circumstances? A parent writing to the Irish Times opined that the process seemed to be “cynically engineered to obtain a particular result for the diocese”.

When parents in this situation inevitably vote to maintain the status quo, the church can say: “We tried, but there was no appetite for it. People want their children to have a Catholic education.” This is certainly how Fr Gerry O’Connor, involved in the failed divestment of a Catholic school, explained the fact that no schools voted for change in the Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot.

Faced with public attention on its untruths and manipulations, the archdiocese of Dublin announced that the divestment votes in north Dublin would be postponed.

In the wake of this farce, the government must reassure parents that divestment will not disrupt their children’s education. They need to know that they’re not voting on order versus chaos, but on whether they want their school to be run according to a Catholic ethos, or according to a multi-denominational or non-denominational ethos.

Some things will, of course, change in a non-denominational or multi-denominational school. For example, preparation for Catholic sacraments would take place outside school hours, a shift potentially just as beneficial for Catholic children as for non-Catholics. One parent complained that her children sit through 30 minutes of formal religious instruction daily. That’s over 10% of class time.

The decision that Irish parents are being asked to make is of great significance. Not only would divestment protect the rights of Ireland’s non-Catholic children, who are currently excluded during religious instruction, and of non-Catholic teachers, who can be discriminated against in the hiring process, it would also help to complete the separation of church and state. While over 90% of children undergo near mandatory Catholic faith formation in state schools, the church simply has too much power in the Irish Republic.

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Why do state schools continue to teach Irish children to respect the moral authority of the Catholic church, when most Irish adults, aware of the lessons of the Ryan report, the Ferns report, the Cloyne report and too many others, know that such respect is dangerous and misplaced? Why do we continue to show children that it is normal for the church to play a privileged part in public life, when generations have lived the tragic effects of such indoctrination?

If we continue to keep children ignorant of any religious belief but Catholicism, and teach them that children of other faiths are deviations from the norm, will we act surprised when these seeds grow into intolerance and division in our newly diverse Ireland? And will we continue to ignore the misogyny and homophobia of the Catholic church, and to pretend that this has no effect on the children in its schools?

Imagine an Ireland in which children were taught that moral authority is to be earned and can be revoked; that Catholicism is one faith among many; that boys and girls can play equal roles in any institution; that families come in all shapes and sizes. This can happen. There is a chance right now to make it happen. But it will never happen while the Catholic church is running the show.

• Emer O’Toole is associate professor of Irish performance studies at Concordia University in Canada







