Religious freedom as a function of power relations: dubious claims on pluralism in the denominational schools debate

Abstract

The decline of religious observance in Irish society has coincided with the strengthening of the exclusionary prerogatives of state-funded denominational schools. The implementation of a ‘Catholics first’ policy in many schools, as underpinned by legislation, suggests that increasing religious diversity in the State has led to an abandonment of the historical acceptance that schools in receipt of public funding would not exclude non-coreligionists. It therefore casts doubt on the viability of individual religious freedom within the long-standing framework of the denominational education model. This stance, as well as the reaffirmed commitment of the Catholic Church to the unimpeded inculcation of religious doctrines in its schools, has been defended with reference to dubious normative invocations of pluralism and religious freedom. This article argues that the conception of pluralism invoked by those defending the denominational education model in its current form fails to command normative legitimacy due to its non-universal, particularist and essentially communitarian scope. It also suggests that this conception is nonetheless broadly resonant with the Constitution, which, it is argued, itself configures religious freedom principles as a function of the power relations between religious groups.

Keywords:

• religious freedom
• Constitution
• state funding
• pluralism

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Notes

1. Note, however, that the ‘Educate Together’ group has submitted reports in recent years to international and regional human rights bodies, including, for example, a 2005 shadow report on the First National Report to the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. This and other reports are available at its website, http://www.educatetogether.ie

2. Equal Status Act 2000, Section 7.

3. As a point of comparison, the preamble to the Constitution of the Fourth French Republic, which still enjoys legal force in French constitutional law, provides that ‘the organisation of free and secular public education at all levels is a responsibility of the State’.

4. [1999] 2 I.R, 321.

5. [1999] 2 I.R, 321, 347, 344 (emphasis added).

6. [1999] 2 I.R, 321, 347.

7. [1998] 3 I.R, 321.

8. [1998] 3 I.R, 321, 357.

9. [1998] 3 I.R, 321, at 358.

10. [1998] 3 I.R, 321, 357-8.

11. [1998] 3 I.R, 321, 357.

12. [1998] 3 I.R. 321, at 358 (emphasis added).

13. [1998] 3 , 321, at 358.