So, my son attends school at the church

[Pat Mustard]

Not a conspiracy theory when it's the truth. In my case I went through fourteen years of catholic exclusive schooling, when I should under Irish law and the constitution, exactly 0 seconds of catholic exclusive teaching.

But when did that happen? I'm well aware that Ireland was the closest to a Catholic theocracy for decades, but the church seems to have lost a lot of clout since then. The vote for gay marriage being a good indicator.

The situation was created in 1837 when the British govt bowed to the combined bullying of the rcc and the coi who wanted control of the secular national school system created 7 years previosly.

And then you've got by far the most conservative department in Education, with teachers spending 18 years in religious schools (the only non catlick teacher training college is a Dublin based coi one, and the colleges are getting more fundie), the civil servants from consevative catlick rural backgrounds, and few responsible ministers either competdepeent enough nor independence of thought to modernise the system as is badly needed.