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Showing posts with label National Maternity Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Maternity Hospital. Show all posts
Atheist Ireland ✒ In a democratic republic, the State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital. 


It should not cede control over this essential public service to any private institution, such as Saint Vincent’s Holdings.

Our Constitution was heavily influenced by Catholic Church teaching. There are Articles in our Constitution that protect the interests of charitable institutions with a religious purpose. Article 44.2.5 states that:

Every religious denomination shall have the right to manage its own affairs, own, acquire and administer property, movable and immovable, and maintain institutions for religious or charitable purposes.

But what is a ‘religious denomination’ in this context, and how can it ‘manage its own affairs’? The Supreme Court examined this question in 1997, when it was testing the constitutionality of Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act. In that case the Supreme Court found that:

The term ‘religious denomination’, was therefore intended to be a generic term wide enough to cover the various churches, religious societies or religious congregations under whatever name they wished to describe themselves.

These various religious denominations may control religious, educational or medical institutions, whether directly or through a board of guardians or trustees . . . 

Continue reading @ Atheist Ireland.

The National Maternity Hospital And Article 44 Of The Constitution

Atheist Ireland ✒ Niall Stokes has written a powerful article in Hot Press about why the Catholic Church should have nothing to do with the new national maternity hospital, given its abuse of children, its repeated coverups, and its evangelising mission.


He highlights the duplicity and evasion of the Jesuits in covering up repeated sexual abuse of children by one of their priests, in three different schools in three different counties. This priest ended up as a part-time chaplain in Saint Vincent’s Hospital.


This reflects the wider ethos of the Catholic church in Ireland. They believe that they are above the law of the State, and they will prioritise their own evangelising mission, including in any influence that they are allowed to have in the new national maternity hospital.

Atheist Ireland has always argued that the State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital. It should not cede control over this essential public service to any private body, never mind to a charity associated with the Catholic church.

Please consider joining Atheist Ireland if you are not already a member. We are a voluntary group with no paid staff, and we depend on our members to continue our lobbying on this and other issues including secular education and religious oaths for high office. You can join here.

⏩Atheist Ireland ➖ Promoting Atheism, Reason And An Ethical Secular State.

The Catholic Church Versus Democracy

Atheist Ireland ✒ Our politicians are now wrestling with the issues around the National Maternity Hospital and the Sisters of Charity.


Those issues are not just about access to reproductive healthcare, but also about the right to freedom of conscience. Those who seek a National Maternity Hospital free from religious influence do so on the basis of their constitutionally protected right to freedom of conscience.

Article 44.1 of the Irish Constitution protects the right to freedom of conscience. The Irish State has failed to recognise the right of those who, on the basis of conscience, seek healthcare without a religious purpose because that religious purpose undermines the dignity of the human person and is based on the tenets of a particular religion. The reason that politicians don’t see this as an issue of conscience is because of the influence of the Catholic Church in relation to the definition of freedom of conscience, religion and belief.

The European Court has said that secularism is a belief protected by Article 9 of the Convention, and that an aim to uphold secular and democratic values can be linked to the legitimate aim of the protection of the rights and freedoms of others within the meaning of Article 9 of the European Convention (Hamidovic v. Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.3.2018 European Court). Article 9 of the European Convention relates to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

In 2010 the Irish State argued at the European Court in the A, B and C case that the restriction on abortion pursued the legitimate aim of the protection of morals, of which the protection in Ireland of the right to life of the unborn was one aspect. It is clear since the abortion referendum that a majority in Ireland disagreed with restricting abortion on the basis of a particular moral view.

The courts in Ireland have already recognised the right to freedom of conscience applies to those with philosophical convictions. Given the finding of the European court, it seems likely that the Irish courts would recognise that those who seek a secular healthcare system on the basis of their conscience are protected by Article 44.1 of the constitution.

In the High Court in 2011, Justice Hogan stated that:

27. Along with the guarantee of free speech in Article 40.6.i, Article 44.2.1 guarantees freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion. Taken together, these constitutional provisions ensure that, subject to limited exceptions, all citizens have complete freedom of philosophical and religious thought, along with the freedom to speak their mind and to say what they please in all such matters….
35. There is thus no doubt at all but that parents have the constitutional right to raise their children by reference to their own religious and philosophical views. (AB v Children’s Hospital Temple Street & CD & EF – January 2011)

Denying women their reproductive rights is discrimination, and it undermines the rights of women. Many people object on the ground of conscience to the State involving a religious body in the National Maternity Hospital project, and especially when that body actively campaigns internationally to deny reproductive rights to women.

The supporters of secularism can be those with no religious affiliation, atheists, or humanists, but also those with a religious belief, as there are many religious secularists.

Under the Constitution everyone has a right to equality before the law and the State cannot discriminate in access to termination of pregnancy on moral grounds. The State also has a duty to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen, which includes the right to freedom of conscience. Handing over public healthcare to private religious bodies that deny access to reproductive rights because of Canon law is a clear disregard for the rights of secularists and the outcome of the abortion referendum.

⏩Atheist Ireland ➖ Promoting Atheism, Reason And An Ethical Secular State.

Protecting The Freedom Of Conscience Of Secularists In The National Maternity Hospital

Michael Nugent ✒ In a democratic republic, the State should own and directly run the national maternity hospital. 


It should not cede control over this essential public service to any private body, never mind to a charity associated with the Catholic church, which has an appalling record of human rights abuses and an ethos that opposes reproductive rights for women.


Atheist Ireland campaigns for a secular healthcare system based on compassion, human rights and the medical needs of patients. No religious values should be imposed on patients who do not share those religious beliefs. The State should remove, not reinforce, the traditional privileges that religious bodies have in our healthcare provision.

Atheist Ireland also lobbies politicians of all parties for a secular education system. They all assure us that, if they were starting from scratch, they would not have given the Catholic church the influence that it has over our education system. So why are they actively doing the same thing while spending €800 million on our national maternity hospital?

If the government accepts a 99-year lease on the land that the hospital is built on, they would be knowingly passing this problem down to future generations. The politicians of the next century could then assure their constituents that, if they were starting from scratch, they would not have given the Catholic church this influence over the maternity hospital.

Scandalously, the government is spending €800 million of public money on a project that requires the Sisters of Charity to obtain permission from the Vatican to agree to it. The Vatican is the headquarters of a global religion that poses as a quasi-State when it suits its purposes. Its primary aim is not to provide healthcare, but to evangelise people into Catholicism.

The Vatican has Guidelines for the Administration of Assets in Institutes of Consecrated Life which state that:

The field of economics is a means of missionary activity for the church… [These assets] are ecclesiastical assets… Through financial transactions, vital choices are made which should reflect the evangelical witness… The ultimate responsibility for administrative, economic, or financial decisions can never be handed over to members of the laity or to those of other Institutes.

The Vatican has a Charter for Healthcare Workers, which states that:

Healthcare workers should be given a solid ethico-religious formation, which promotes in them an appreciation of human and Christian values and refines their moral conscience. There is need to develop in them an authentic faith and a true sense of morality, in a sincere search for a religious relationship with God, in whom all ideals of goodness and truth are based.

Recent referendums on marriage equality, abortion, and blasphemy, have shown a consistent majority in favour of secular government. Our politicians should heed this message, and the government should own and directly run the national maternity hospital.

Michael Nugent is Chair
of Atheist Ireland

The National Maternity Hospital

Anthony McIntyre has some thoughts on the National Maternity Hospital controversy.

Right now the only thing that can be said of the Irish health system with any accuracy is that it is a mess - Irish Times.

Having Nun Of It

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