The new Lord mayor of Ireland Cllr Alison Gilliland has invited members of Atheist Ireland to her office as part of the usual round of meetings that take place when a new occupant joins the office. But this is first time in the history of Ireland that an atheist group is invited by a mayor to the office.
Cllr Alison Gilliland assumed the office last June and she met Atheist Ireland chairman Michael Nugent and its Human Rights Officer Jane Donnelly at the Mansion House this Tuesday. Once elected, it is a custom for the new Mayor to meet with the President, Taoiseach, two Archbishops of Dublin, an Imam and Rabbi. This time Cllr Gilliland changed that custom by meeting representatives of atheist community additionally.
Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly were very pleased after the invitation and the centre of discussion was the importance of recognising atheism and other non religious philosophical convictions as having the same positive status as religious beliefs, The Irish Times reports.
As per the statistics there are at least 10.1% of people in Ireland who do not follow any religion. They are considered as atheists and agnostics. Another interesting statistics is, the number of atheists and agnostics increased by 76.6% after 2011 in the country.