These changes are starting to crack the Catholic Church’s monopoly on Irish education, but not quickly enough to meet growing parental demand for school diversity. Polls show that as many as three in four parents say they would send their children to schools run by groups other than churches, if given the choice. But alternatives are sparse. The most prominent substitute for church-run education is a multi-denominational model from Educate Together, a group with no church affiliation that operates just 65 of Ireland’s nearly 3,200 primary schools.

Even Catholic leaders acknowledge the problem. Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has been pushing for more Catholic schools to be handed over to other groups.

“I am the legal owner of about 85 percent of all elementary schools in this diocese, and I have been saying for some time that this does not reflect the realities—and that we have to move forward,” Martin said.

Working towards Martin’s goal, Ireland’s Education Minister Ruairi Quinn established an unprecedented Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in 2011, which was aimed at gauging parental demand for new types of schools and recommending changes to accommodate religious diversity.

School watchers see these efforts as a watershed moment in Irish education, even if their impact remains to be seen.

“The Catholic Church has always had the lion’s share in controlling education and, up until recently, no one has been brave enough to come forward and say, ‘Can we do it in a different way?” said Dublin City University lecturer James O’Higgins Norman.

Irish primary schools are essentially publicly funded, but privately run. The government pays for school construction, teacher salaries and grants based on school enrollment, but private groups—mostly churches—provide the education. They are required to teach a standard state curriculum, and 30 minutes per day is set aside for religious instruction. For the vast majority of children who attend Catholic schools, that means preparation for Communion and Confirmation is part of the state-sanctioned school day—an unwelcome reality for some parents.

Martijn Leenheer and his family moved from Holland to a rural village in County Leitrim, Ireland, in search of a quieter town for raising their son, Finn. An atheist, Leenheer was concerned about exposing his son to Church doctrine at the local Catholic school, and he chose to opt Finn out of the 30-minute religion class—a constitutional right afforded to all Irish parents.

Three months later, Leenheer was surprised to learn his son was still sitting in the class on most days, as well as reciting prayers in other parts of the school day. Leenheer contacted the principal to clarify things, but was repeatedly ignored, he said.

“We didn’t realize we chose the most rural bit of Ireland to live in,” said Leenheer. “We never thought it was going to be this serious, this in-your-face-religion.”