Saved by the Bell: The Constitutional Rights of Religious Minorities, Denominational Monopolies, and the Persisting Need for Integrated Legal Reform within Irish Primary Education

• Date: 01 January 2024

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Saved by the Bell: e Constitutional Rights

of Religious Minorities, Denominational

Monopolies, and the Persisting Need for

Integrated Legal Reform within Irish

PrimaryEducation

RHIANNON MULCAIRE*

Introduction

‘We should set our sights high so that we are worthy of those who went before us,

worthy of the issues which face us and worthy of our current and future citizenry,

whose interests we are called upon to serve.’1

In May 1996, this statement was delivered in Dáil Éireann by the then-Minister

for Education, Bernard Allen. Coinciding with an emerging public dissent to the

existing ecclesiastical administration of education in Ireland – a model heavily

oriented towards the Roman Catholic (‘Catholic’) population – Allen professed

his ambitions to modernise the national schooling system to meet the demands of

an increasingly pluralist society.2

Twenty-seven years later, however, a similar parliamentary statement of aspirations

would remain apposite. Although several legislative and executive attempts to

revise the extent of denominational inuence within the primary education system

have since materialised, families of minority faiths and none (collectively dened

as ‘minorities’ for the purposes of this article) continue to encounter signicant

diculties in availing of educational rights relative to their Catholic peers.3

* Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) Graduate and Scholar at the University of Galway, and Master of Laws

(LLM) Graduand at the London School of Economics and Political Science. e author would

like to thank Professor Lucy-Ann Buckley and the Editorial Board of the Hibernian Law Journal

for their comments on earlier dras of this article. All errors and omissions remain the exclusive

responsibility of the author.

1Dáil Deb 15 May 1996, vol 465, col 4.

2See generally Department of Education, Education for a Changing World: Green Paper on Education

(Pl 8969, Stationary Oce 1992); John Coolahan, Report on the National Education Convention

(Convention Secretariat 1993).

3 Amalee Meehan and Daniel O’Connell, ‘Religious Education in Irish Catholic Primary Schools:

Recent Developments, Challenges and Opportunities’ in Seán Whittle (ed), Irish and British

Reections on Catholic Education: Foundations, Identity, Leadership Issues and Religious Education

in Catholic Schools (Springer 2021).

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Saved by the Bell 93

is article evaluates how the primary education system compromises the

constitutional entitlements of these minorities as regards the three pillar issues of:

(i) school provision; (ii) admission policies ; and (iii) the integrated curriculum. It

queries the purported constitutionality of these practices prior to critiquing the

attempted reforms made in these areas, arguing that such measures prove largely

inadequate to vindicate minority rights. It concludes by examining the reticular

nature of these three distinct issues as a necessary consideration in amending the

primary education model, and thereby contends that holistic rather than isolated

reform is the sole means by which equality in primary education may be achieved.

Compelling discussions which are beyond the purview of this article include

religious discrimination against school employees pursuant to the Employment

Equality Acts 1998–2021,4 international human rig hts law,5 second-level education,6

and the ongoing litigation arising from Wilson’s Hospital School v Burke.7 Equally,

this article does not broach fundamental policy matters including the uniform

introduction of secular education. Rather, it comprises both a sequential analysis of

the continuing issues presented to minorities’ constitutional rights by the primary

education system subsequent to the localised reforms eected to date, prior to a

consideration of the interrelated nature of such challenges when implementing

further amendments.

Part I: Historical Development of the Patronage Model

Ireland’s distinctive tradition in education ‘can only be understood in light of

h i st o r y ’. 8 Part I of this article examines the historical inception of Ireland’s primary

education model, noting its development alongside the emergence of a devoutly

Catholic population.

e Origins and Evolution of the ‘Non-Denominational’ Patronage Model

Perhaps counterintuitively, the reputedly-ecclesiastical primary education model

adopted in modern Ireland is ultimately derived from the Stanley Letter of 1831, a

progressive proposal amongst its contemporaries which sought to establish a non-

denominational system of national education.9 is novel system operated on the

4Employment Equality Act 1998, s 12.

5See generally David Doyle, Marie Muldoon and Clíodhna Murphy, ‘Education in Ireland: accessible

without discrimination for all?’ (2020) 24(10) International Journal of Human Rights 1701.

 S ee generally UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined

h and sixth periodic reports of Ireland (CRC/C/IRL/CO/5-6, 7 February 2023)

tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/DownloadDra.aspx?key=Z2evgg/KQ

itPmEcSGMucoCNqFqXtuuCWER+xgVyHyGmvMw3EsMfzMwfzMf2vQ/fnXOWwk

JODlXYvV4TDj8u8A==> accessed 25 February 2023 6.

7[2023] IEHC 41.

8Dympna Glendenning, Education and the Law (2nd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2012) 21.

9Tom Walsh, ‘e National System of Education, 1831–2000’ in Brendan Walsh (ed), Essays in the

History of Irish Education (Palgrave Macmillan 2008) 9; see also Stanley Act 1831.

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