Category Archives: Uncategorized

On the morning of 9/11 my late wife Anne was working in Leinster House as a parliamentary personal assistant. She rang me to tell me to turn on the television. She had an intern from New York working with her. As the Twin Towers collapsed on global television, the intern was devastated, not knowing whether […]

Listen above to my discussion yesterday on the Niall Boylan Show, on Classic Hits FM, about whether religion should be taken out of schools. The discussion was in the context of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland applying to be patron of a new secondary school.

Listen above: As the Islamic Foundation of Ireland is seeking the patronage of a new post-primary school, I made the case for a system of secular schools that everybody can attend without religious discrimination, on Newstalk Radio’s breakfast show this morning.

Listen above to my discussion on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence, on Sunday 8 September, about the idea of “almost believers.” Unitarian Minister Reverend Chris Hudson coined the phrase to describe people who might be on the verge of attending church services.

Saturday 7th of September 2019 was the seventh anniversary of Atheist Ireland’s monthly information tables outside the GPO in Dublin. We hold them on the first Saturday of every month. We also hold information tables in Cork and Galway, and last month we had our first Teach Don’t Preach information table on secular education.

Why do people believe that living in California would make them feel happier than people who do live in California actually are? And why do people, who are afraid of being rejected, want more drugs than people who have actually been rejected?

David Quinn of the Iona Institute has written a blog post taking issue with my statement that: “I believe we should treat every individual person with the same respect and dignity and love.” David agrees with this, but says that as an atheist I cannot justify believing it. David says that some atheists say that […]

Thank you for the responses to my recent post on biological sex and socially-constructed gender. If you haven’t already read it, you can read it here. There was a mix of positive responses describing it as a balanced article, some critical questions which I will respond to in my next few posts, and the usual […]

There is a meme doing the rounds on Twitter with the caption “Vegan: I don’t eat meat because I respect nature.” Then the word “Nature:” followed by a photo of a hawk swallowing a live rodent. I’m not going to reproduce the photo, because why would I want to circulate a photograph of a sentient […]

Since my recent lunch with my friend Graham Linehan, I have been learning more about the issues of biological sex and socially-constructed gender. Thank you to everyone who contacted me with constructive comments. In this article I am sharing my current opinions on the following topics: Supporting the rights of biological women and transgender people […]