During the recent presidential election campaign, there emerged a strong feeling that our Constitution should be amended to make it easier to run for the presidency. This would require a referendum. What else might be addressed in such a referendum?
The issue of the religious oath, which must be taken by the incoming president, is one that should be dealt with as a matter of urgency. Ireland has become increasingly secular in recent years and much of “old Ireland” has been replaced by an Ireland where same-sex marriage, divorce and other human rights are well established.
Equality has become the watchword of the Ireland of today. But we do not have true equality when the president must take an oath starting with “In the presence of Almighty God, I do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare ...” and ending with “May God direct and sustain me”.
A non-religious person saying these words immediately compromises their integrity. It demands they tell what is, in essence, a lie.
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Ireland’s census statistics show that the State’s most common religion historically, Roman Catholicism, declined from 79 per cent in 2016 to 69 per cent in 2022. At the same time the number of people identifying as non-religious increased by 63 per cent to 736,210 or 14 per cent of the population. So almost three-quarters of a million citizens are effectively disbarred from the highest office in the State.
In the 1950s and 60s, when I was growing up, it seemed everyone in Ireland was either religious or put up a very good pretence of being so. To be openly non-religious was unthinkable. It would very likely have affected your career prospects and your standing in society. There are obvious parallels here with sexual orientation – but, thankfully, the State and the people of Ireland dealt with this injustice and it now seems a distant memory. But inequality to the non-religious persists in a number of areas, most notably the issue of religious oaths for high office.
In addition to this religious oath being required by the president, it must also be taken by each member of the Council of State and members of the judiciary.
Over the years there have been many calls for change in this regard but, remarkably, the State has shown no appetite for righting this particular inequality.
In 2021, four high-profile citizens took a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding religious oaths. The Irish Government chose to defend the oath’s inclusion in the Constitution and the ECHR sided with the State, arguing the litigants were not directly affected by the issue as they were not personally running for office. So the principle of the matter was ignored.
In 2013, six of the President’s seven nominees to the Council of State made a submission to the Convention on the Constitution questioning the appropriateness of office holders having to take religious oaths. In their submission they said: “The respect due to religion and to those who profess religion is of course sacrosanct.
But to require a citizen to publicly profess a faith – any faith – as a precondition to enter and hold public office serves neither religion nor the ideal of a public space open to all who are willing to contribute to the common good in a Republic.”
Going back farther, in 2007 a structured dialogue process was set up by the State. This was to be a platform for leaders of the various religions and other “non-confessional philosophical groups” to make the government aware of any issues they might have in the hopes of making changes for the common good.
The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) was included in this initiative andg as a director of the HAI, I was deeply involved in the proceedings. The HAI saw it as an opportunity to air its issues and sent the government a submission entitled Equality for the Non-Religious.
Sadly, this all turned out to be little more than a talking shop with no real results. Two meetings stand out in my mind. The first, in 2007, was with Bertie Ahern and members of his cabinet. When we pointed out that what we were looking for was equality, our then-taoiseach told us that “the problem with equality is that if you give it to one person they’ll all want it”.
The second was a plenary meeting with representatives of the government, all religions and the HAI. This was held in 2011 during the presidential election campaign that would elect Michael D Higgins. Following the innocuous remarks of all other participants, I got my chance to speak. I posed this question: “How embarrassing would it be for our State if in November our president-elect declined to take up office because he/she could not in all conscience take the religious oath required by the Constitution?”
We are still waiting for an answer.
Brian Whiteside is a secularist and former director of the Humanist Association of Ireland
