Recently the Kerry County Council voted to hang a crucifix in the Council Chamber.
This is a link to a Radio Kerry interview with Councillor Joe Culloty who proposed this.
This is a link to my interview with Radio Kerry arguing against it.
And this is a letter I wrote to The Kerryman on the same topic.
There is an unfortunate side-effect to the decision of Kerry County Council to hang a crucifix in their chamber. Though an atheist, I’ve always been comfortable assuming the vast majority of my elected representatives will be Roman Catholic. I trusted they would put our common citizenship above our differing belief systems.
I’m now going to have to ask each council candidate what religion they practice and I’ll need to know how invested they are in that practice and if they’ll represent me to the same extent as someone from their religion.
The Council has decided to privilege one religion over a whole hosts of others, for no reason other than it is the religion of the majority. Will we next see a shrine to white skin? A shrine to heterosexuality? A shrine to the able-bodied? A shrine to people who aren’t in negative equity?
Kerry Councillors have a duty to all the people who live in Kerry. Not just the people who elect them, not just the people who look like them and certainly not just the people who pray like them.
