GILMORE THE ATHEIST VOWS TO GOD HE WILL DO HIS BEST FOR THE COUNTRY

ATHEIST Eamon Gilmore invoked God yesterday at the formal meeting of the Council of State.

He swore the oath prescribed in the Constitution, declaring: ‘In the presence of Almighty God, I do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare that I will faithfully and conscientiously fulfil my duties.’

The Tánaiste took legal advice and was told there was no kind of oath he could swear other than the Constitution’s one referring to God.

He had been urged to reject the oath by the Atheist Ireland campaign organisation. Mr Gilmore has previously confirmed he does not believe in God.

But he is seen to hold one hand in another when the daily prayer is read by the Ceann Comhairle before the start of Dáil business.

It says: ‘Direct, we beseech thee, O Lord, our actions by thy holy inspirations, and carry them on by thy gracious assistance; that every word and work of ours may always begin from thee, and by thee be happily ended. Through Christ our lord. Amen.’

The Labour Party has in the past suggested this opening prayer be done away with in both the Dáil and Seanad.

Senator Ivana Bacik, who was Eamon Gilmore’s running mate in the Dún Laoghaire constituency in south Co. Dublin at the last election, has also called for a debate on other aspects of the Church-State relationship, ‘for example the continued broadcast of t he Angelus by our national broadcaster’.

Michael Nugent, head of Atheist Ireland, wrote to Mr Gilmore, saying the Council of State oath was one ‘that a conscientious agnostic cannot honestly make’.

He said the Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister would be invoking ‘the presence of a god that you are publicly on record as not believing in’.