Would you be buried beside an atheist?

Ireland has always casually discriminated against atheists, in ways that are often very funny as well as serious. And it does not end with death, but continues on into the grave.

Here are four funny random news stories, each about fifty years apart, that illustrate how official Ireland has viewed atheists from the mid 1880s to the early 2000s.

Two involve court cases, and two involve burials. For the full impact of the casual discrimination involved, as you read them, imagine substituting the word atheist with that of any other group of people.

Atheism worse than violence?

In April 1859, a Belfast Presbyterian was horrified when he was accused of being an atheist. James McAldin had been removed from a jury panel in a court case, and he believed that it was because his name “had a Roman Catholic sound to official ears”. However, the Attorney General told the House of Commons that McAldin had been set aside because he was “an atheist and a violent party man”.

McAldin wrote a letter to the Times saying that “the charge of atheism is such an odious accusation that I trust to your sense of justice to permit me to repel it.” He was also upset by being called “a violent party man” but he described this accusation as being “not so damaging” as being labelled an atheist.

Buried beside an atheist?

In October 1908, Councillors in Gorey rejected a plan to open a Council graveyard after a debate in which one of them argued that he did not want to be buried beside an atheist. An enquiry was being held into an application to close the Cranford burial ground in County Wexford.

The graveyard was almost full, with some coffins covered by only inches of earth. Some councillors wanted the Council to establish its own graveyard, while others wanted the church to continue to run parish graveyards.

Councillor Patrick Walsh argued that, if the Council ran the graveyard, an atheist could be buried in it, and he would not care to have an atheist buried beside him. A solicitor representing the church agreed that “it would be horrible for those that believed he had no soul in him.” A resolution in favour of acquiring the increased accommodation was defeated.

One of them said: “We are atheists.”

In December 1960, a century after the James McAldin court case, the Children’s Court in Dublin fined two youths 40 shillings each and put them under a rule of bail for a year after an altercation with a local priest. The youths had tried to push their way into a parish social event in Sallynoggin.

Father Michael Quilter told the court that, after he refused to let them in, they threatened to come back again and “get” him and one of them said: “We are atheists.” In court, this youth said that he was not an atheist, that he believed in God, and that he wished to apologise to Father Quilter.

However, he asked the priest in court: “Did you hit me on the jaw?” and the priest replied: “I had to use physical force to get you out.” The Justice said that he was sorry that he could only impose a maximum penalty of 40 shillings on the youths. There is no record of the Justice saying anything about Father Quilter hitting the boy on the jaw.

“Putting her in with the Protestants.”

In August 2008, a century after the Gory burial inquiry, a man was told that he could not bury his dead mother in Donegal, because no graveyard in the County would bury an atheist. Joan Greenslade had a humanist funeral service but church authorities told her son Roy that the churches (Catholic, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian) owned all of the graveyards in Donegal. Therefore, unless he was willing to compromise his late mother’s beliefs by agreeing to a religious service, it was impossible for her to be buried.

She was eventually buried in nearby Derry, in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. The city council’s cemeteries department said they had different areas in the municipal graveyard for Catholics, Protestants and even Muslims. Asked whether they were starting an atheist section for Mrs Greenslade the reply was: “No, we’re putting her in with the Protestants.”

Source: The Irish Times reported on each of these stories.

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