Last Thursday, Senator Rónán Mullen raised the issue of the Athena SWAN charter which is now a funding requirement for third level institutions seeking research grants.
That remit has been extended to other publicly funded bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
This has led to the rather pathetic scenario in which Irish third level institutions, the ESRI, and even public officials with responsibility for higher education and research, are boasting about gold, silver and bronze awards from an English NGO.
It’s reminiscent of those native Americans who sold entire tribal territories for a few shiny trinkets – though our representatives only have the integrity of education and research to peddle.
This infiltration of the Irish educational and other sectors has proceeded at pace for almost ten years since Advance HE – the English company/NGO which invented the Athena SWAN Charter – was allowed to have a say in setting the standards for “equality and diversity” here.
Yet, as I will outline below, no records of meetings in the HSE when they decided to adopt the Athena SWAN programme apparently exist.
It was made clear by Gript, and people like South East Technological University lecturer Colette Colfer, as well as Senators Mullen and Sharon Keoghan, that the Charter that was being implemented in third level institutions contained a provision that did not accurately reflect Irish legislation.
That was shown when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee stated publicly that, to quote Minister McEntee, “misgendering people will not be a crime”.
That directly contradicted the claims made in the gender expression and equality documents published on the websites of Irish universities including SETU, Trinity College, and University College Dublin which asserted that “Refusing to address a person by their correct gender pronoun or new preferred name” constitutes “unlawful discrimination or harassment”.
This claim is still intact in the policy document posted on the SETU site. The current Trinity College Dublin policy document contains almost exactly the same formulation. So too does the Gender Identity Policy and Expression document on the UCD website.
Well, do we accept the word of the Minister for Justice who has clearly stated that there is no law that would have you pinched by the guards if you do not address someone by their “correct gender pronoun”? Or do we alternatively – as some of our leading third level institutions appear to – prefer the formulation of an English liberal NGO?
Gript has previously outlined the history of Advance HE and the adoption of their Athena SWAN charter in this country.
Senator Sharon Keogan described the Advance HE Athena SWAN certification as a “hitherto functionally useless award handed out by a leftist British NGO” that “is now an essential prerequisite for every Irish university, college and institute that wishes to apply for funding from the country’s main research funder”.
She called on the Minister for Higher Education to debate “the appropriateness of withholding funding from Irish higher education institutes, HEIs, which have not been rubber-stamped by a British NGO”.
To summarise their origins and motivation, Advance HE can be fairly described as the direct product of British educational policy, which has been totally dependent on UK state funding and its ability to be awarded contracts with British third level institutions.
It has, as indicated by the Athena SWAN Charter, a definite ideological bias that is reflective of British left liberalism and of the educational policies inspired by and implemented by the British Labour Party.
Advance HE was formerly known as, and currently incorporates the Higher Education Academy, which was established in 2003 and was directly responsible to the then Labour Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson.
Is it not rather bizarre that the creature of a foreign government ought to be given such a prominent role in the way in which higher education in the Irish state is administered and funded?
It is difficult to get information about how Advance HE operates in Ireland. They do have an address here, at Penrose Dock in Cork, but other than that details are sparse. It actually has two separate registrations with the Companies Registration Office (CRO.) One was incorporated in March 2022, the other in September 2021. Both are registered as external companies.
None of the officers of either company have addresses here. NATSEC, with an address at the IFSC in Dubin, is listed as an “authorised person” for one, and as secretary of the other.
The financial statement for the company registered 703150 provides an address at Penrose Dock and provides absolutely no information on its specific accounts for operations in Ireland as its balance sheet lists no assets, liabilities or shareholder funds for 2022.
The accounts for the company registered as 909772 link directly to the 2022 report for the UK company which has almost the same directors as the company registered in Ireland.
The report barely mentions Ireland and implicitly speaks of and considers the Irish state and its educational institutions as no different than if they were in Nottingham or Sheffield. Gript has attempted to find out more about how Advance HE operates in Ireland.
The total staff costs for the year amounted to more than £20 million. There is no separate accounting for either income or expenditure for their operation here.
A Tonya Watt is listed as their Head of Partnership for Ireland but an email to Ms Watt was responded to with a statement that she is “no longer working at Advance HE.”
A Sarah Fink is listed as the head of Athena Swan in Ireland but there are no contact details. Likewise for Irene Byrne, the National Advisor on Athena SWAN. Nor is there a phone number or email contact for their office in Cork.
We have also several times sought information from Government departments regarding contracts with Advance HE for the implementation of the Athena SWAN programme.
While they are happy to boast about getting stars from this outfit – like the gillies who used to get invited around for a glass of sherry in the landlord’s kitchen on Christmas morning back in the day – they are more reticent about telling anyone how much they pay them.
When Gript asked the Higher Education Authority to provide a “contact number or email for Advance HE in Ireland, an Executive officer working with the HEA’s Centre of Excellence for Equality and Diversity provided an email address.
The HEA, of course, describes itself as the body which “leads the strategic development of the Irish higher education and research system.”
I asked the HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality and Diversity noting this and inquiring if “Advance HE is operating as part of the HEA? Or what exactly is the relationship?” I had received no response by the time we were ready to publish.
I did, however, receive a response from Sarah Fink Head of Athena SWAN in Ireland. Ms. Fink provides a standard overview of how the Athena SWAN programme works here.
She did not specifically answer the questions I had asked regarding the directorship of Advance HE in Ireland, or whether there are separate accounts for their operation here.
Her only reference to this was to state that “A national committee made up of HE institutions, the Higher Education Authority and Advance HE (which has a team of two in Ireland) oversees the way the Charter operates, to ensure it responds to the sector’s gender equality priorities.”
I sent another email to Ms. Fink and to the UK office of Athena SWAN requesting the same information but had received no reply before we went to publication.
We have also previously asked the HSE for records of meetings when they decided to adopt the Athena SWAN programme. Such records do not exist, apparently. In a response to a Freedom of Information request last November, I was informed that there are no records of any meetings with Advance HE regarding the introduction of Athena SWAN into institutions under the responsibility of the HEA.
And yet one of the people responsible for bringing them here has written an academic paper detailing all the contacts over the years.
I was referred to three reports published by the HEA but they only describe how Athena SWAN is now a requirement, not why it was decided to be a requirement.
One of those reports, on Gender Equality published in November 2022 does refer to the Centre of Excellence. It states that it was established in 2019 as the Centre for Excellence in Gender Equality, and that it “evolved into the Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” in 2020. It does not mention Advance HE so we are no wiser about why the Centre appears to function as the contact address for Advance HE in Ireland.
If Irish citizens are paying for this tendentious nonsense and allowing our education system to be monitored by a gang of red brick university Brits we really ought to be told more about how this came to pass, and what exactly is the relationship between a foreign NGO and a publicly funded state agency that shares an email address with it. You know ….
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All publicly funded bodies should be barred from allowing anyone except the Irish people dictate how their money is gained and spent. This is yet more disenfranchisement of the Irish people.
VOTE IRISH FREEDOM PARTY!
VOTE MICHAEL LEAHY (Ireland South)
VOTE HERMAN KELLY (West-Midlands)
VOTE DIARMAID Ó CONARÁIN (Dublin)
IF FFG WIN AGAIN, THERE IS NO COMING BACK FOR OUR COUNTRY
🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️🇮🇪❤️
Well done to the Gript team for chasing this matter. Sounds like there’s a determined effort to hide the bread crumb trail.
Agreed. It’s not the first time that Gript has been the only media outlet highlighting a scandal involving a British institution that was adversely affecting the citizens of this country. The MSN and the main opposition party turned a blind eye to the Tavistock scandal.
Indeed, our government were supporting Tavistock, were sending on our children to them and paying for all. Notice how they never mentioned Tavistock after it got found out. They think silence will make it go away and be forgotten. A terrible scandal will not be forgotten.
Here is the thing, schools, colleges and universities used to be educational facilities. Now they are indoctrination centers. It used to be a situation where you went to school and then onto the above named to start a career in life and it was seemed to be a requirement. Now you go to these places to be indoctrinated before getting a really low paying job after all those years of study that cant even support you due to intentional government policy of allowing pricing to sky rocket and destroying housing. In my own career, I learned everything I know myself and this has taken me all over the world. I can honestly say that there is no use for these universities anymore as long as the individual has the ability and self motivation to learn themselves through their own research and practical ability. Sure in some cases third level education is mandatory but these courses should be moved out of existing universities and colleges because its quite clear that the people running the existing third level institutions are mentally unstable as the kakistocracy and are incapable and untrustworthy of educating individuals if this is the carry on that they get up to. Political propaganda, indoctrination and marxism have no place in our educational systems and cannot even be used practically in any trade a person chooses. The best person for the role should get the role and not discriminate against an individual because they are not the right gender, skin color or religion. Athena does exactly this. Third level educational access is discriminatory enough with introducing this with the point system and fake prestige of universities resulting in over priced fees. If I had it my way, there would be educational systems based on availability of courses and class numbers, first come first server because I know how disheartening it is to not get enough points for something you are genuinely interested in. Points in a leaving cert do not determine your ability to do the thing you want to do and in most courses, what is taught very rarely relates to actual practical experience in the job process. I would also have a single tier college system with no elitist universities. This alone is discriminatory against people who might be extremely bright but lack the money to go there. Organizations like athena would be banned and kept a million miles away as they promote discrimination against worthy more deserving candidates. The messed up thing here is that its all a hegelian dialect because the people the government hired in the first place created the so called need for athena by discriminating themselves which means that the guidelines of these institutions were never followed, were never correct or were over ruled by personal bias based on personal gains which sums up this whole kakistocracy. You have to ask yourself, what is the consequence of not following guidelines set out and the answer is nothing because nobody in the public sector workforce follows them and we see the fruits of their labors daily. Now they tell us that they have to bring in athena as a mandatory requirement because of their failures to uphold what is right. This is nothing short of ludicrous and clearly a wealth transfer and sheer cronyism which will result in more destruction of our youths minds, corrupted by clear wrong teachings in our society. There is no freedom in this at all. Its bad enough that they teach our kids theories that have no scientific merit as facts in our institutions to ensure our children think they are insignificant nothings that must not think for themselves because the institutions have all the answers and going against the grain will result in a lifetime of cheap insults and ridicule. The kakistocracy are making a mockery of us and the sheep keep on following it. Do yourselves a favor oh youthful ones, avoid the irish indoctrination centers and learn yourself, you will be better off for it.
Advancement in a career should be by Merit only, and merit produces the best results in every endevour or profession/.
Nepotism and connections were often the criteria for employment and educational paths ,and still exist via Freemasons and Old Boy networks.
Selection by the diversity ,equity and inclusion route is by defintion just another form of the failed US Affirmative Action Policy.
It results in poor performance , low productivity , workplace tensions,, poor Quality Control, and safety dangers in the finished product as experienced recently with a Boeing Jet door failures of Air Alaska.
The best deserve the best job by Merit alone all else is discriminatory. and unwelcome social engineering.
Correct which is how we ended up wit a kakistocracy in the first place. Another example is the public sector pay deals that are done, how is this actually fair in any way when you have people who do nothing v people who actually do work getting the same pay rises. Additionally to this we have all the politicians getting the same pay rises too meaning that the minister in charge will be incentivized to give the best pay rise that he\she can get away with. Thats insane. I wish cronyism was just a public sector thing but it has filtered down from the top in to all private businesses. Take for example when you go for an interview, the person doing the interview will always want to know who you were working with because they want to reach out behind your back to someone they know who knew you to see if you will fit the narrative instead of hiring you based on your experience and worth. Its all to protect themselves because the last thing they want is to hire someone who would show them up for the unqualified useless wastes they are. You can see this from a practical standpoint when we look at companies like symantec which was the biggest av provider in the world at one point but because they went down the road of dei, they hired the worst in society to suit the narrative and ended up being a shadow. Businesses are no longer run to make a permanent stable profit, like our countries, they have huge debts in the back ground provided by the shareholders who are normally the same companies like blackrock and vanguard who slowly take control, push the marxism and put people in positions that will tow the line of paying expensive mistakes, discriminate and then pump money in for more control until they are sold off for billions to be plucked apart. Having a stable business with good staff is irrelevant and I think this is down to the loss of family businesses. They just dont exist anymore because they keep succumbing to this type of business with the investors and shareholders who pull the strings in the back ground which is why we are seeing all the anti white stuff. Same story with the government who are caught with their personal investments and the government bonds owned and controlled by the same people who tell them to push the anti white communism. This of course results in all entities only hiring what the technocracy want them to hire and not the people qualified for the jobs. A leaked vid of ibm boss showed this in action where he told his managers to do diversity hires only or they will lose bonuses of their jobs. We are in a tough place. Now they are doing it in our educational facilities. I say screw them all and carry on ourselves without the lot of them which is what i do.
Putting Irish education institutions at the mercy of the Athena Swan Centre, for funding, is blackmail. Obedience to the nonsense of the transgender cult, for the sake of funds, shows we have sold out on our values. We are like Othello, ‘who, like the base Indian, threw a pearl away, richer than all his tribe’. So, it’s a British NGO, that is deciding on what our new values must be. Furthermore, they regard Ireland as still a colony of the UK, whose views must be acceptable to an extremist, left wing British grouping. Our government can come up with no answer as to why acceptance of the Athena Swan Charter is a requirement to get funding for higher education. The answer is blackmail. They want to impose the moral code of a fringe movement on our mainstream student body. Refuse and you get no money. Our government is closed, dark and hidden. No accountability. No records on this. No writing. Keep it quiet in case the plebs find out. The plebs’ only role in this is subjugation to the rule of LGBT. They know we only accept biology, not bullogy and they have to keep things out of public view. No accountability. Our leaders run into hiding when questioned. They have us tied in bondage to a cult movement, for the sake of a few bob, for whom the godless LGBT is the only moral code. Blackmail. This corruption belongs to the worst government I have ever known. A mafia.
Bravo Mary
Thank you and thank you Matt Treacy
This article is much needed and timely. Advance HE was formed from the merger of the Equality Challenge Unit, Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
The article below in Aug 2022 gives a lot of info on how Athena Swan progressed
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-subversion-of-athena-swan/
In 2011 the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) announced that from 2016 only organisations with an Athena Swan Silver award would be eligible for funding. At the time, the Athena Swan charter was a scheme to promote women’s careers in Science, Technology, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM)
Around 2016 Advance HE did a deal with Stonewall whereby it began to promote trans ideology.
As part of their Athena Swan applications, universities can promise to improve their Stonewall rankings, and as part of their Workplace Equality Index submission they may boast that they no longer monitor equality data by sex.
Athena Swan’s decision to recognize gender as a spectrum was announced in 2020.
Did Irish universities know what they were getting into? If they did that is even more worrying.
I have no doubt that they did know what they were getting into. Importing every possible silly woke idea from British and US universities is what they always do. They even lack the intelligence to come up with their own silly ideas.
Thanks to yourself and Matt for blowing their cover. Thanks for your research. Hard to find them out because they are hermetically sealed with the arrogance of not being accountable to anyone. The universities are woke, they knew what they were entering but they’d do anything for money and awards, not caring about the moral welfare of the students. I expect they are promoting woke people only in jobs, to keep more wokeness going, those opposed to it would put a spoke in their wheel, if given the power. Thinking students would revolt. No thinking. No revolt. Not even a whisper. No opposition. A revolt among the students would blow them out. But all that these students blow out, is the candles on their pride cake, with no risk of upset to the woke agenda.
Athena Swan is a money making scam for some privileged socialists in England.
It’s not what you know, but who you know.
It should not be forgotten that most NGOs, political parties, quangos & media outlets subscribe to the the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.
Equally untrue, irrational and contrary to freedom of thought, speech and action.
I was listening to pat kenny this morning, he had a person on who was a chairman of something but he said “I’ve been told to say chairperson but she’s happy for me to say chairman.” It was unrelated to anything they were talking about they were talking about someone resigning in RTE. Has to be annoying to be given the gendered words orders at his age and experience.