The 'choice' not to practice religion is a myth in Irish education
You might say: 'I’m not religious, but we’re doing the Communion for the grandparents and the big day out.' File picture
When I moved my family back to Ireland last summer after years in the United States, I expected the reverse culture shock to involve horizontal rain or my lost ability to engage in small talk.
Instead, it happened as soon as I started thinking about school enrolment. I returned to an Ireland that looks, on the surface, inclusive and forward-looking: the creche my daughter attends is a microcosm of a diverse Ireland.
At the playground, I regularly chat with parents who immigrated to Ireland for employment opportunities, and stayed for the community and the people. There are also many like me, who have recently returned after years abroad upskilling and absorbing other cultures, excited about integrating back home.
As I started to think about enrolling my young children in primary school, I was drawn to the equality-based model I missed out on as a child. Naively, I assumed that in the years I’d been away, the education system would have shifted more towards pluralism.
However, I was dismayed to learn that multi-denominational schools account for less than 6% of primary schools nationwide. When I plotted the figures myself, the reality was stark.
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The few inclusive options are small clusters, mostly in Dublin; when I toggled to ‘Catholic schools,’ the map transformed into a rash of blue dots, blanketing every corner of the country. I had naively assumed that a decade away would have made 'school choice' a reality.
Instead, it’s clear that divestment has been an abject failure: the government’s 2020 goal to reach 400 multi-denominational schools by 2030 is hopelessly off track.
The data prove that divestment is the wrong approach: you cannot build a modern education system by politely asking a self-preserving monopoly to exit the classroom
The conversation around education in Ireland is currently dominated by the word "choice". In a recent piece in the Irish Times, Jennifer O’Connell discussed the "choice" to send a five-year-old girl to an all-girls Catholic school.
It made me wonder: what does "choice" actually mean in a landscape where 88.3% of primary schools remain under Catholic patronage? For most Irish parents, the "choice" paradigm feels like a myth.
In reality, the 'choice' ends at the nearest postcode. Parents are opted into a system where religious instruction is woven into the very fabric of the day.
This isn't just a weekly lesson; it’s a curriculum that demands roughly two and a half hours a week, unscheduled drop-ins from the local parish priest, who usually sits on the board of management, and impromptu masses that require full school participation.
For teachers and students alike, the academic year in second and sixth class becomes an exercise in sacramental stamina, diverting countless hours toward rehearsals for rituals many families no longer practice.
The opportunity cost is staggering.
Those hundreds of hours could be spent on philosophy (as they are in France), ethics (as in Quebec), or a comprehensive 'World Religions' curriculum that treats faith as history and culture rather than dogma.
But as a parent, the time lost is secondary to the discrimination found in its place. It keeps me awake at night to think of the overt discrimination my children may soon face.
While the Irish Constitution (Articles 44.2.4) explicitly guarantees the right to attend State-funded schools without attending religious instruction, the reality on the ground is a daily violation of that promise.
One only has to read the heartbreaking testimonials submitted to Education Equality to see the despair of parents whose children are sidelined, ignored, or shamed for simply exercising their constitutional rights.
Living in the US for a decade, I watched from afar as Irish friends and family viewed American politics with a growing sense of superiority.
Since returning, I’ve found that there is a striking irony in how we discuss America’s freefall into theocracy, undergirded by a rise in Christian nationalism.
We look at the Heritage Foundation’s plans to erode secular public education in the US under the guise of “restoring religious freedom to public schools”, and we see it as a descent into a fascist state.
Yet, we remain ambivalent about our own reality. In America, the secular nature of the public school is a point of national pride. Even in the most conservative states, the state-funded system does not mandate religious formation.
Here, we have normalised what most Americans would consider a constitutional crisis: a national school system where almost 90% of schools require teachers to hold certificates in Catholic education, and dedicate significant classroom time to faith formation and sacramental preparation.
In America, the struggle is to keep education secular. In Ireland, we haven't even begun the work of making it secular.
According to the 2022 Census, over 30% of the Irish population does not identify as Catholic. Why then is religious identity so inextricably linked to the State-funded curriculum?
In many ways, Ireland is a modern, secularized European society but when it comes to education, we look like an ethno-state, closer to Iran or Israel than to our European peers.
What is even more confusing is that our children’s journey through the Irish education system has become a "bizarre sandwich".
They begin in diverse, pluralistic creches, which are partially State-funded (through NCS, ECCE schemes), but have no religious ethos, then enter a State-funded, monocultural Catholic "tunnel" for 14 years of primary and secondary school, and are then expected to emerge as global citizens the moment they attend pluralist university systems.
We take pride in our modern laws but why do we outsource our children's education to an institution we have otherwise abandoned?
It’s not just our children who are impacted, but teachers too. Our peers who trained at Marino or St Patrick's must still obtain, and often pay for, a Catholic certificate to secure permanent work.
The system demands a performance of faith from the staff, excluding talented educators of other faiths or none who refuse to play along.
The result is a monocultural teaching profession that cannot truly serve a diverse student body. So why is this our reality?
I think it’s likely that many parents rely on "informal secularism", the idea that their local school isn't "that" religious. But this is a fragile peace.
A change in principal can suddenly shift a school's culture; crucifixes appear on walls, or daily intercom prayers commence.
It proves that without structural change, your child’s “religion-light” education is merely a temporary courtesy, not a right.
If you are a parent of a school-aged child, what is keeping you from speaking up? You might say: "I’m not religious, but we’re doing the Communion for the grandparents and the big day out."
But while you are booking the venue, many of your children’s friends are facing discrimination that would be unthinkable if it was based on gender or race.
Everyone knows an ‘opted-out’ child who sits at the back of the room with a book while the class rehearses.
We have normalised that these children are quietly erased from communion and confirmation photographs, a symbolic omission from their own school’s history.
In turning away from this reality, you are telling children like mine that their belonging is conditional.
Every time you "go along with it" because it’s the easier option, you are handing the keys of our children’s future back to an institution that no longer reflects who we are.
I want to be clear: I am not anti-religion, I am pro-equality.
By moving religious instruction to the local parish, we end the performance of faith in the classroom and allow the church to offer faith formation to families who truly seek it, while ensuring our schools finally belong to every child equally.
Like many of my peers, I didn’t move back to Ireland for the nostalgia of the past; we came back to help build the Ireland of the future.
It's time we demand an education system as brave and as modern as the people it serve”
- Dr Maedbh King is a researcher, and an advocate for a pluralist education system in Ireland.
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