HUMANIST HANDBOOK READ IFH MANIFESTO SHAKESPEARE MYTH CLERICAL ERRORS Marx, Darwin, Mill and other 19th century agnostics, atheists and Humanists Existentialism Myth of Redemptive Violence Renaissance Humanism The Enlightenment>>>  In Ireland?>>> HOW FREE ARE WE?   THE ERA OF  LIBERAL  HUMANISM>>>

 

IFH Meetings: All Welcome

Holiday Inn Express, University St., Belfast, 8pm 

Thursday 13th June: Dr Sean Byers
Northern Ireland Civil Rights, Past and Present
Sean is an author and political activist

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OUT NOW: IRISH FREETHINKER,MAY-JUNE

In Eason shops or by subscription

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

ARTICLES AND BACK ISSUES HERE>>>
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SUMMER CONFERENCE 2019

The 2019 Summer Conference, organised by the Irish Freethinkers and Humanists and the Humanist Association of Ireland, will be on 7th and 8th September in the Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore, Co. Offaly (below).
The theme is Humanism and the New Ireland

Welcome and Close by HAI and IFH speakers on Humanism in the New Ireland
In between, Speakers (alphabetical by surname):

Siona Cahill 
President of the Union of Students in Ireland  
What Young People want in the New Ireland

Martina Fitzgerald 
former Political Correspondent RTE; author of Madam Politician: Women at the Table of Irish Political Power
The Role of Women in the New Ireland 

Colin Harvey 
Professor of Human Rights Law at Queen’s University, Belfast, a Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute of Global Peace, Security and Justice, and an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Irish Studies
Uniting Our Shared Island

Liam Herrick 
Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties  
The future for Civil Society organisations, including humanist ones

Patsy McGarry 
Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent since 1990s  
Church/State Relations

 Kelly O’Dowd 
Co-Chair, Alliance for Choice NI  
Is Northern Ireland at risk of being excluded from the New Ireland?

Eamon Ryan 
Leader of the Green Party in Ireland 
Ireland's Environmental Obligations

Catriona Twomey 
Co-ordinator, Cork Penny Dinners  
Diversity and Inclusion in the New Ireland

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HEADING OH, OH, HEAVENWARDS

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Thursday 14th February
Speaker Brian Pelan, centre front, who talked inter alia about the View magazine,
http://viewdigital.org
and some of the audience (photo: Bertie McCullough)

 

  IFH DECEMBER MEETING: TROUBLE SONGS 

Speaker Stuart Bailie gave a fascinating talk on 13th December about his new book ‘Trouble Songs: Music and Conflict in Northern Ireland’. Trouble Songs involves over 60 interviews and conversations with the likes of Bono, Christy Moore, the Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Orbital, Kevin Rowland, Terri Hooley, the Rubberbandits, Dolores O’Riordan and the Miami Showband survivors. It’s an account of how music has been a persuader, agitator and peacemaker.

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SUMMER CONFERENCE 2019

The 2019 Summer Conference, organised by the Irish Freethinkers and Humanists and the Humanist Association of Ireland, will be on 7th and 8th September in the Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore, Co. Offaly (below).
The theme is Humanism and a New Ireland. Details later.

The 16th Summer School organised by the HAI and the IFH was held at Carlingford on 25th-26th August on the theme of Freethought, Humanism and Censorship.

The Conference was opened by Gary McLelland, Chief Executive, IHEU
 
Here is a transcript of Gary's speech:
HUMAN RIGHTS AND BLASPHEMY LAWS 
Here's the speech he gave at the European Parliament on 11th April: 
END EUROPEAN BLASPHEMY LAWS NOW!>>>
Below: the 8 Speakers at the Conference

Harry Browne	Roy Brown	Isabella Evangelisti	Kitty Holland
Chris Hudson	Tony Keating	Anne Marie McNally	Fergus Whelan

Roy Brown's speech is here:
SELF-CENSORSHIP IN THE MEDIA>>>
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OUT NOW! Bob Rees, author of Clerical Errors and IFH organiser,  has published his latest book Secular Humanism: Bob's book offers an easy introduction for newcomers to humanism. It explains what humanism is, how it works, and where it came from. It describes what it is to be a skeptical humanist, and it discusses some of the moral dilemmas facing us today. Obtainable from Brian McClinton 25 Riverside Drive, Lisburn BT27 4HE Price: £12 (p and p incl).

 

WHOSE JERUSALEM?>>>
 

Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018

An inspiration to us all

Speaker Malachi O'Doherty  and other attendees at IFH meeting on 12th April on 
the Belfast Agreement (photos: Bertie McCullough) 

Speaker Stuart Mathieson and some of the audience at IFH meeting on 8th March
on Fire and Fury (photos: Bertie McCullough)

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Speaker Alfred Burballa Noria and some of the audience at IFH meeting on 11th January on the case for independence for Cataluyna (photos: Bertie McCullough)

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Patrick Corrigan from Amnesty International was the guest speaker at the meeting on 22nd June. 

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness":
See Report here>>>
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 The Reformation: was it a good thing?
Five hundred years years ago, on 31st October 1517,  the Augustinian friar Martin Luther started the Reformation when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg where he preached, challenging the authority of the pope.
Or did he? And was it a good thing? Read on:>>>
It was not Luther who was the Champion of liberty, but Erasmus
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Unionists/Loyalists and an Irish Language Act, 23rd March Meeting

Speaker: Linda Ervine. Summary report here>>>

Pauline and Harry Mahood

Linda Ervine & Shelley Leggett

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Thursday 23rd February Meeting
The Taxing of Inequality

Phillip Graham, Media Executive, Oxfam (centre) 
with Brian McClinton (left), Shelley Leggett and Roger Kelly
Summary of the Main Points>>>

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IFH  Launch Meeting, 26th January
Summary of  Some Points and Discussion>>>

INTEGRATED EDUCATION
The Integrated Education Fund has launched a web platform, Integrate My School. https://www.integratemyschool.com
This enables parents to express their wishes in complete confidentiality and can also trigger the first moves that might make those wishes come true.

Is Trump a Christian? Has Donald Trump really read the Bible? He does not appear to be at all Christian and certainly not humanist. Why, then, did 80% of white evangelical Christians vote for him? Read more>>>

The Myth of Grammar Schools

Value Life Above the Foetus

BREXIT: A THREAT TO LIBERAL HUMANISM Liberal Humanism has been the dominant ideology of Europe since 1945. Brexit has dealt it a savage blow. Read more>>>

SON OF SAUL One of the best films of 2016 and indeed the decade. A bleak film, yes, but it offers a crack of light in an abyss of darkness. It is nothing less than a cinematic tour de force Read more>>>

I, DANIEL BLAKE Another of 2016's best films:   a man has a heart attack and is pronounced unfit for work by his doctor and then descends into the misery of the government’s Social Services. Shelley Leggett's Review

CHRISTIAN DECLINE Study reveals that people of no religion (48.5%) outnumber Christians (43.8%) in England and Wales. Although Northern Ireland is more religious, the trend is in the same direction. Decline will be beneficial

Andy Barr:   The Rich are Coining It	Eamon Murphy: TTIP: Post-Democracy	Andy Barr:  Axe the British Monarchy
Brian McClinton: Radio Ulster should be less downmarket	Andy Barr:  Does Islamic Fundamentalism threaten Peace?	Martin O'Reilly: Is It Moral for Humans to Use and Kill Animals?