Precarious religious liberties in education: The salience of demographic and social contingencies under a formally pluralist public philosophy

The Republic of Ireland has historically provided public education almost exclusively through denominational schools on a legal basis of formal neutrality between religious denominations. It provides the unique example of a public education system which is underpinned by a legal framework emphasising principles of free parental choice, and of non-discrimination on religious grounds, yet which is dominated by one particular religious denomination. This contribution discusses inequalities in the guarantee of religious liberty for religious minorities in education, where the exercise of this right is made contingent on the establishment and recognition of schools specifically attuned to particular beliefs. It describes the difference and tension between the idea of equal recognition of religious groups, and the goal of equal religious liberty for individuals, in the context of a broadly confessional public education system that is itself increasingly justified in terms of the secular goods of diversity and choice.