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A message to all the MLAs in Stormont #equalmarriage #religiousfreedom

On Monday 1 October there is a motion in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Equal Marriage: That this Assembly believes that all couples, including those of the same sex, should have the right to marry in the eyes of the … Continue reading A message to all the MLAs in Stormont #equalmarriage #religiousfreedom

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No road signage but plenty of signs of the Ulster Covenant commemoration

This morning I have been walking up what later on will be the Ulster Covenant Centenary Parade route. I’m heading to the capital, Dublin, for the day for a meeting in Molesworth Street. However, one thought particularly struck me as I walked up the Upper Newtownards Road in Belfast. The parade organisers have no signs up telling motorists and others that it is a major parade route. If this were London this would almost certainly have been done. There are signs that it is a parade route—lots of Union Flags flying at half-lamppost! Continue reading No road signage but plenty of signs of the Ulster Covenant commemoration

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We’re in a time warp: 1910, 2010, 2110?

Victoria Square, Belfast, 1910

A programme for the reform of the whole system is what is wanted. State built and State equipped school buildings in every district; management by a State department of Education… When a thorough system of secular education is advocated it is by many thought that religion is thereby endangered. This is not so. Religious instruction in schools is apt to be a mere routine which does not touch the finer feelings. Religious instruction in the schools has done much to destroy religious teaching in the home. The indifferent parent has satisfied his conscience by delegating some of his most important duties to the schoolmaster. In a country which has no State Church there is no State religion to be taught in the State Schools and it is the duty of the various religious denominations to see that their children get proper religious instruction without unnecessarily sacrificing their secular education and thereby providing third-rate education and routine religious instruction… Continue reading “We’re in a time warp: 1910, 2010, 2110?”