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Three of us were involved in organising this year's Ethos Conference on Nov 23rd. Three is a nice number - small enough for genuine discussion when arrangements get going and big enough to spread the blame around when things haven't gone to plan. Organising events like this tap into something deeply primeval. What if nobody comes? What if it's just the three of us and a pile of rapidly depleting...

I was travelling in the UK last month and came back to quite a furore about an article in the Guardian newspaper and on the Guardian website. The writer had asserted that Educate Together had "won the right" to teach "that God doesn't exist" in Ireland! In the end the paper printed a correction and published a letter I wrote to the editor but not before social media sites had echoed with quite a...

After long months awaiting a fearful round of cuts and reductions in Budget 2014, we are very relieved to see that there have been no further reductions in resources for front-line services in schools. I think we have to say that this is a tremendous achievement at a very difficult financial time. The significant increases in teacher employment to meet demographic increases and resource hours...

These conferences can often be made up of the usual suspects - ourselves included! But this really had an international feel, with delegates from Russia, the UK, Japan and Denmark amongst other countries. A speaker from Canada presented on the West's perception of Hinduism and other Asian belief systems. Basically, he argued that we in the West tend to have a very Judaeo-Christian view of...

Once again, we're running our postgraduate certificate in Ethical and Multi-denominational Education in St Patrick's College of Education, from September 2013. Last year's course was a great success with one of the participants commenting that the course 'really encouraged deep reflection on current ethical issues in education'.  Modules deal with: Philosophies of Ethical and Multi-denominational...

Intensive work going on all week preparing for the three primary new schools due to open on September 2nd in Portobello (Dublin), Firhouse (Dublin) and Rochestown (Cork). Really hard work done over the summer and a lot more to do next week. Tremendous credit to the effort being put in by volunteers, the recently appointed Principals and teachers and our national office staff. Thanks also to the...

Once again this year, the sword of Damocles has fallen over a generation of young Irish adults. By now, the Leaving Certificate results have been published, tweeted and texted the world over. There have been whoops of joy and cries of angst as students examined their marks. This is a rite of passage that comes with an almost cathartic sense of relief from students and parents alike. It is time...