The inauguration of Michael D. Higgins as President of Ireland on Friday, November 11 2011, broke new ground by including a ‘reflection’ by a Humanist. Susie Kennedy, a representative of the Humanist Association of Ireland, spoke at the ceremony immediately after an inter-faith service.

Each summer the Humanist Association of Ireland and the Humanist Association of Northern Ireland jointly host an all-Ireland Summer School in the beautiful medieval coastal town of Carlingford, about half-way between Belfast and Dublin. The ninth summer school will meet from September 2 to 4, 2011, to explore “Humanist Morality.”

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has gained an unexpected ally in its criticism of the Roman Catholic Church’s abuse of children: the prime minister of Ireland. Condemning the Catholic Church’s “frankly brazen disregard” for child protection, Enda Kenny, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), said: “The rape and torture of children were downplayed or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’.”

See: http://www.atheistalliance.org

‘The present Pope and his predecessor were well aware of the scale of the priestly child sex abuse crisis. Despite claims to the contrary, there is strong evidence in two recently uncovered letters from the Vatican.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has reacted with disappointment to a European Court of Human Rights ruling on the abortion laws in the Republic of Ireland. The BHA has criticized the decision by the Court which, while upholding that reproductive choices are encompassed by the human right to privacy,  also found that this right could be infringed and overruled on the basis of the competing interests of wider societal views; in this case the religious beliefs of some within the Republic of Ireland.

In a speech condemning the recent passage of a blasphemy law in Ireland, and UK legislation which criminalises, among other things, causing "religiously aggravated distress", Roy Brown, IHEU Main Representative at the UN Geneva, asked the Human Rights Council whether these two governments have forgotten that it is individuals not ideas or beliefs that merit protection. He also criticized the way in which, at the other extreme, Pakistan permits expression of hatred in the media against Ahmadiyyas and other religious minorities to go unchecked.

Geneva, March 16, 2010 -- The Vatican’s record on child abuse was criticized today at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Highlighting the Vatican’s repeated and ongoing efforts to cover up evidence of child abuse by priests, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) accused the Vatican of violating its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

In May this year, a Commission under Justice Sean Ryan reported to the Irish Government on the wide-scale abuse of children in Irish institutions over a very long period.

For those who like mysteries the Irish education system is as good as any other; after eight years living here it is still something of a quandary wrapped in an enigma to me.