Sir, – Patrick Davey (May 30th) claims the right to have his children educated in a religious school. This is as unattainable a "right" as the right to live in a religious town, or to work in a religious factory. A "right" that can only be realised if others are denied their own rights is no right at all.
The idea that the majority has more “rights” than minorities do is tyranny, and the removal of a right through effective unavailability is as much a violation as if it were explicitly denied in law.
Secular education is compulsory, and religious education cannot be. By conflating the roles of State school and church school we have created inequality between those of the majority faith and those of other faiths or none. The only way to respect everyone’s rights equally is to separate the roles of church and state, leaving schools to teach a full secular curriculum to all regardless of faith, and allowing each church to supplement this with its own particular teachings outside school hours as parents wish and free from State interference.
Separation of church and state is not an attack on religion. It releases everyone, religious and irreligious alike, from the shackles of pretence and hypocrisy. People of faith should follow the example of their brethren other countries and embrace a secular state as the means of their own liberation. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW GALLAGHER,
Trimbleston,
Dublin 14.