Ireland's government announced Thursday it will organize new nonreligious primary schools in the capital, a move that reflects growing immigration and declining church power in this traditionally Roman Catholic nation.Education Minister Mary Hanafin said two new schools planned for northwest Dublin would not be controlled by the church, which for more than a century has been the principal administrator in Irish education — including for 99 percent of primary-age children today.
Hanafin said a third elementary school in Dublin, which opened three months ago under the patronage of the Catholic Church, would be transferred to secular control within two years. About 95 percent of its students are non-Catholics, chiefly Muslims and Protestants from Africa.
"The new schools will be open to children of all religions and none. They will be interdenominational in character, aiming to provide for religious education and faith formation during the school day for each of the main faith groups represented," Hanafin said.
The issue has grown each year since the mid-1990s, when Ireland's newly booming economy fueled its first-ever wave of immigration from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
In little more than a decade, Ireland has gone from being a virtually all-white society to one with a large immigrant population, particularly on Dublin's north side, which is developing neighborhoods with predominantly foreign-born populations.
Catholic leaders welcomed the government's move as a reflection of social reality.
"The Catholic Church welcomes choice and diversity within the national education system," said Bishop Leo O'Reilly, chairman of the Education Commission of the Irish Bishops Conference.
"We believe that it is important to accommodate the rights and needs of people of different faith backgrounds, and of none, to an education which reflects, as far as possible, their sincerely held convictions and values."
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