The Hobby Horses of Belief (and assorted hazards)

In the latest "Celebrity in trouble over sexual and other misdeeds, needs a career redemption fast" move, Conor McGregor has found god:

Funny article in the Irish Times:

https://archive.ph/djBmi

(both taken from the McG thread)

From the report, it seems clear that the survey is being run by, and for, the Department of Education. It has been welcomed by Educate Together and by ETB Ireland; I think if they had any concerns about either the people or the motivation behind the survey I think they'd be raising them.

I don't know anything about a survey being run by or for Aontú. If there is one, I don't think this is it.

I think you put your finger on the problem here. The Catholic church is grossly over-represented as a school patron, relative to the wishes of parent, but it's still a more popular patronage choice than any other. Thus, at the level of the individual school, there are very few Catholic primary schools where the number of parents wanting (say) ET patronage exceeds the number preferring to retain Catholic patronage. I think that's the rock on which previous moves to reduce the number of Catholic-patronised schools foundered.

The RTE story linked above mentions factors like "misinformation . . . claims that they would no longer be able to celebrate occasions such as Christmas or Easter or use Irish greetings such as 'Dia Dhuit’" as being at least partly responsible. In a perverse kind of way, this is somewhat encouraging. Ten or fifteen years ago, schools stayed in Catholic patronage because it was the most popular choice; now, those wanting schools to remain in Catholic patronage, have to try and shore up their situation by aggressively promoting Trumpy lies like this. I get the impression they'e on the run. As support for Catholic patronage gets weaker and weaker, there may be more and more schools where a majority of parents will seek a switch to other patronage models.

Or, maybe we shouldn't wait for that, or rely on it. if you take the view that the patronage of each school should be determined by the patronage most popular with the parents, the patronage that is most popular nationally will always be grossly overreprsented. It's the first-past-the-post problem, basically.

The only way round this may be to group schools into districts and say right, the school patronages here are going to be distributed according to parental preference in the district as a whole, so if 40% of the parents prefer Catholic patronage then about 40% of the schools will have Catholic patronage. And, to acheive this, we are going to give some schools new patronage models, even if that's not the preferred model of the parents whose children go to those particular schools.

(I should add; I think the problem here is well-understood in the Dept of Education. I suspect, or perhaps I just hope, that the reason they are conducting this survey is to get data for a new approach to partronage change that can get around the barriers presented by dealing individually with each school.)

@smacl it's not the same as the current divestment approach - well, at least, what @Peregrinus is talking about is not.

e.g. Remember the "divestment" exercise a few years back in the Malahide area (the one with no Christmas, no uniforms, no school outings(!) and no grandparents allowed in the school(!) if they dared change, according to the FUD the teachers shamelessly distributed to the kids to bring home, and parroted in public meetings) ?

There were 8 RC primary schools in the Malahide area, with easily enough demand in the area to fill one ET and possibly two.

Result - no change - because no individual school could secure a majority for change. First past the post system.

Proposed district led approach - patronage in proportion to demand - at least one school changes, even if there is no majority in that specific school. This is proportional representation…

But the whole notion that you can only have your constitutional and human rights respected if enough of your neighbours agree, really needs to be binned once and for all.

Also this process is, like Malahide, still wide open to FUD campaigns from the RCC and god-bothering principals. Meanwhile parents who've never had their kids attend an ET know little or nothing about them.

P.S. - there is a school patronage thread, this is kinda a funnies thread

Politicians want the least amount of change they can possibly get away with. So that (if anything at all) is what we will get.

The insufferable Peadar Toibin's latest would-be publicity stunt / culture casus belli is whinging that Dublin City Council's Winter Lights, which have been around since 2018 and were never called Christmas Lights, aren't called Christmas Lights.

(These aren't the city centre street Christmas Lights which are, and have always been called, Christmas Lights. They're in addition to those lights)

Michael Nugent and John Hamill discuss on Newstalk - linked in below article

Has that ever stopped Toibib?

😄

Way to go, Germany. Need this in Ireland, too:

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-empty-churches-repurposed-as-congregations-shrink/a-75227388

Not fast enough nor that widespread.

She's wrecked her last artwork.

"The fight over Christian nationalism in a small Tennessee town"

They are self-described "Christian nationalists" who question modern values, such as whether female suffrage and the civil rights movement were good ideas, and call for mass deportations of legal immigrants far in excess of President Donald Trump's current plan. Another thing they sometimes say: "Repeal the 20th Century."

Mr Isker and Mr Engel announced their move to Gainesboro last year on their podcast Contra Mundum - Latin for "against the world".

On their show, which is now recorded in a studio within Ridgerunner's Gainesboro office, they have encouraged their fans to move into small communities, seek local influence, and join them in their fight to put strict conservative Christian values at the heart of American governance.

"If you could build places where you can take political power," Mr Isker said on one episode, "which might mean sitting on the [board of] county commissioners, or even having the ear of the county commissioners and sheriff… being able to do those things is extremely, extremely valuable."

Nothing new in cult-like movements trying to take over local politics though…

In 1984, 751 people suffered food poisoning in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, due to the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with Salmonella. A group of prominent followers of Rajneesh (also known as Osho) led by Ma Anand Sheela had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections.[2] The incident was the first and largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history.[3][4]

Traditionally, the CofI model has been that, as long as the local community can find the resources to keep a church building standing, and safe, they will maintain it as an active church, even if a service is celebrated there only one every three months (or less frequently). As a result there are still a large number of rarely-used but still technicallly active CofI churches in rural Ireland. In many cases the desire to keep a church technically active is underpinned by the fact that the churchyard is still an active burial ground, or at least holds graves that are significant to local families.

I suspect the Catholic policy will be similar. Parishes will be merged, with one church becoming the regular parish church and other churches uses only occasionally.

It's just bizarre that the taxpayer is stumping up for this not the church.

The Bishop of Galway, Michael Duignan – through a spokesperson – said the current situation was “unsatisfactory” but the Diocese has always prioritised this important ministry, and it was committed to supporting the return of a 24-hour chaplaincy service at UHG.

Doesn't prioritise it enough to pay for it though.

Ironically because the taxpayer is paying, the Organisation of Working Time Act applies so they had to cut the rostered hours.

I presume they are not paying for similar for any other denomination or faith, it's special privileges for members of one denomination only.

The taxpayer and the State should have no role whatsoever in funding the religious practices of anyone.

Well it looks like another religious despot who should never have been let run a sweetshop, never mind a country, has discovered whether his beliefs were true or not.

Family flowers only, house private.

Does she fit the definition of 'gowl?'

What a laughable, un-self-aware (as you pointed out) editorial. I suppose the IT needs to fill its web pages.