Citizens to Separate Church and State sent this message below to RTE last Saturday about media coverage for the ‘forgotten referendum’ – the 35th amendment about age for presidency.nnThe letter we sent last February to the cabinet before the Bill moving the 35th amendment had been presented to the Oireachtas was included. It can be read on this site.nnThe campaign has had no response from either the government or individual cabinet members to this letter warning about moving the age referendum without dealing with the religious oath requirement in Article No. 12.8.nnTo: RTE at referendum email address – referendum@rte.iennDate: 25/04/15nnWe Citizens to Separate Church & State are opposing the Age Referendum as the Government refused to take action, and we have set up Facebook and Twitter pages and a web-site to develop this position.nnYou will note that the referendum commission has highlighted the religious oath on its website as it clearly recognises that to be a factor in citizens’ consideration of the issues. [http://refcom2015.ie/presidential-age/]nnSo far, in the limited debate there has been around this ‘forgotten referendum’ the discriminatory aspect of extending the religious oath to a whole new cohort of citizens has escaped notice.nnWe are hopeful that RTE will rectify this situation now as the campaign begins to gather momentum.nnWe are about to launch a video on social media and are framing leaflets for downloading nationally.nnWe do not believe the blind eye currently being turned to the oath issue is deliberate policy on anyone’s part, but simply that the implications of running the referendum without removing it or accompanying it with a right to ‘affirm’ have been overlooked by the media.nnThe same excuse can not be made for the Government as we pointed out the injustice of the situation to them in advance and the UN Human Rights body has consistently criticised our state for its stance.nnTo further extend discrimination in this way and deny equal rights to non-religious citizens ( and certain religious minorities) sits strangely at odds with the Governments supposed commitment to ‘equality’ in the marriage referendum. Hopefully you will manage to draw attention to this contradiction and involve us in the debate as things progress from now on?nnDick Spicer & Mike McKillen 086 6095799nn nnCitizens to Separate Church and StatennC/Onn47, Sugarloaf Crescent,nnBray,nnCo. Wicklownncscsirl@gmail.com
Leave a Reply