Dear Major General Ó’Murchú,
I hope you’re well and that you don’t mind an unsolicited email. I obtained the attached communications through FoI and since you’re interested in the reasons for my litigation against the Defence Forces, I thought I could help you out in that regard. My motivation was to be considered for a chaplaincy role, which the Defence Forces unlawfully prevented because I’m not a Christian.
More broadly, I’m also interested to ensure that our public services in general do not discriminate against atheists by restricting State-funded positions to Christians only. I have no interest in impeding your efforts to improve the provision of chaplaincy services within the Defence Forces, and indeed no aspect of my litigation created any such impediment. What is impeding your efforts is the sectarian discrimination within your recruitment processes, which you have yet to remedy. If at some time in the future you ever decide that you can appoint candidates to roles without unlawful sectarian discrimination, then you will find nothing within the WRC Decision impeding you in any way.
I further note that you are concerned about “continued pressure from a number of bishops”, who wish to make changes to the priests assigned to these very well-paid chaplaincy roles. Could I suggest that if you focussed more on appointing the best candidates to serve the interests of Defence Forces members, and less on the whims of some men in silly hats, then you would find fewer impediments to your work? When you improperly and gratuitously endow Roman Catholic bishops with any more influence and control over Defence Forces recruitment than any random person on the street, you create rather than remove such impediments.
Ireland is not a theocracy. A foreign national living in Rome is free to award any religious title to whomever he wishes, but greater influence and control over appointments within our Defence Forces should not follow from such awards. Good luck with your ongoing efforts to achieve improvements in this area.
Yours, etc.
