Atheist Ireland is an association of atheists based in Ireland. The group was initially founded by members of Atheist.ie, an online community set up by Seamus Murnane in June 2006. Its current chairperson is writer and activist Michael Nugent. Atheist Ireland is a former member of Atheist Alliance International, and a former member of Humanists International (previously known as The International Humanist and Ethical Union), and current member of The Coalition to Repeal the 8th, Children's Rights Alliance, the International Coalition Against Blasphemy Laws and the National Women's Council of Ireland. The group estimates it has about 500 members.
Background
In Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church retains an influence in public-funded state services such as the provision of education and health care. Atheist Ireland oppose this influence.
Atheist Ireland formation started in 2006 from an online forum set up by Seamus/James "Catherder" Murnane. The forum proved popular and quickly grew into a social and issue-focused group. In October 2008, forum members discussed setting up a physical campaigning group.
Atheist Ireland was founded at a meeting in the Central Hotel in Dublin on 30 November 2008. Its stated aims were to promote atheism, reason and secularism. Michael Nugent was elected as chairperson at the meeting.
Atheist Ireland describes itself as an advocacy group for secularism, rationality, pluralism and human rights. It is run by a management committee consisting of four elected officials, chairperson, Secretary, Finance Officer and Regional Officer and other co-opted volunteers. It is a voluntary, non-profit, unincorporated civil society organisation. The current committee consists of Michael Nugent (chairperson), Sean O'Shea (Finance Officer), Kelvin O'Connor (Regional Officer/Membership Officer) and Helen O'Shea (Secretary). Past committee members include Derek Walsh as Editor of Secular Sunday, Ashling O'Brien who campaigned on repealing the 8th and spoke to the Citizen's Assembly on this issue and John Hamill of thefreethoughtprophet.com. Jane Donnelly has taken on the role of human rights officer focusing on the Irish education system.
Activities
Not long after its formation, members of the Atheist Ireland community were featured prominently on radio station Clare FM to discuss the role of atheism in Irish culture. Since then Atheist Ireland spokespersons Michael Nugent, Jane Donnelly and John Hamill have frequently been interviewed on Irish media on freedom of thought issues.
In 2009, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, proposed amendments to the Defamation Bill, including a statutory offence of blasphemous libel prosecutable liable to a fine of up to €100,000. The proposed penalty was later reduced to €25,000. Atheist Ireland launched a campaign of opposition to the concept of the law. The group received support from author and scientist Richard Dawkins, politician Ivana Bacik, and writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, among others.
Chairperson Michael Nugent described the law as "silly and unjust", and highlighted other areas of the Irish Constitution which he felt were anomalous. He pointed out that to become a judge, a member of the Irish Council of State, or President of Ireland, a candidate must first swear a religious oath, and said that amendments were immediately required to address all such issues.
On 1 January 2010, the date on which the law came into effect, the group published a series of potentially blasphemous quotations on its website and vowed to challenge any resulting legal action. It also said that it would be holding a series of public meetings to launch a campaign for secular constitutional reform.
On 25 June 2015 Michael Nugent discussed Atheist Ireland's complaint about RTÉ broadcasting the Angelus, with George Hook on Newstalk Radio. Michael identified that he believed RTÉ that their proposed alterations were appropriately inclusive, yet have failed to meet the requirements of a state-funded television network. He suggested renaming the Angelus to something with a more neutral name.
In 2016 Atheist Ireland refused an invitation to attend the state commemoration of the Easter Rising the chairman, Michael Nugent saying "The 1916 Rising involved an undemocratic group killing innocent people, based on a Proclamation whose authors claimed that Ireland was acting through them in the name of God...The reason for using the wrong date is to make the commemorations coincide with the Christian holiday of Easter".