Dublin, Ireland, Jul 8, 2019 / 09:00 am
A judge in Ireland has decided that a Catholic girl in foster care can attend a Protestant Church of Ireland school, even though the girl was raised Catholic and her Catholic parents do not want her attending the school.
Details of the case came to light Monday, following the release of a report by the Child Care Law Reporting Project earlier this year. The report provided an outline of nearly 50 specimen child care cases from around the country.
In issuing his ruling, the judge said that the issue of religion had "bedevilled this country for many a long year."
The girl's foster siblings attend the Protestant Church of Ireland-run school, and a judge agreed that it would be in the girl's "best interests" to attend that school as well. The judge argued that attending a different school than her foster siblings would hinder her integration into her foster family.