The Department of Education recently clarified that schools are not legally required to use a student’s chosen pronouns, contrary to controversial claims in the ICCL Trans guide.
Despite this, it announced that pronoun guidance will be reviewed by three academics at Maynooth University (MU), based on an updated version of Being LGBT in School, originally published by the now-defunct GLEN.
MU is widely regarded as a progressive institution. It boasts about its Athena Swan accreditation—a framework ostensibly for prioritising gender equality, but one that really just affirms and enforces gender ideology across the entire campus, creating the impression that everyone who works and studies there accepts gender identity as fact.
MU’s own Gender Identity and Expression Guidelines explicitly require staff to use individuals’ preferred pronouns and to apologise and “swiftly adjust” their language if they accidentally use the wrong pronoun, thus streamlining the enforcement of compelled speech.
Line managers and the wider community are expected to foster a “trans-inclusive” environment, with no apparent accommodation or even tolerance for people who don’t believe in gender ideology and who would just use the real biological pronouns.
Entrusting such a review to a university that mandates pronoun use and full affirmation among its own staff suggests a clear bias in the likely direction of the guidance. Although we are assured by the Irish Times that those carrying out the review do not wish to pre-empt its outcomes, it is difficult not to see the colourful progress writing on the wall.
The three academics carrying out the work are all specialists in inclusive practice and bound, seemingly contentedly, by the university’s Athena Swan commitments.
The lead investigator, Dr Angela Rickard, completed her 2024 PhD (narrative inquiry) on second-level teachers making schools more hospitable to LGBTQ+ people.
Her abstract opens by framing the work as supporting LGBTQ+ hospitality in schools and concludes that findings highlight why it matters for everyone that schools be open to LGBTQ+ appearances, themes, and concerns. This doctorate work was based on interviews with four second level teachers – and the experience of one school who affirmed preferred pronoun use for students with gender dysphoria is positively portrayed.
Another member of the review, Professor Bernie Grummell sits on the university’s Athena Swan committee and has led work on the EU TUTOR project, which prioritises inclusivity for LGBTIQ+ communities and other minorities in schools. Through the TUTOR project, she co-authored Inclusion in the Irish Education System: Policy Recommendations for the Second Level and Further Education & Training Sectors.
The report recommends making the Belong To Quality Mark mandatory for all schools and calls on the Department to “continue to develop and update” inclusion guidance, including the Being LGBT in School guidelines. The Department has now agreed to update this document with a view to issuing guidance on pronoun use, with Prof. Grummell — who made the recommendation — among the academics doing the review at Maynooth University.
On pronouns, the current version of Being LGBT in School states:
“In general, it is extremely important to ensure that the correct gender, name and pronoun are used to address transgender or intersex people. Using the correct name, pronoun and gender is a mark of respect against which individuals will measure the level of safety and inclusion for them within the school.”
“While adjustment to a new name may take time, and accidents in misuse of original names may happen, the school should be alert to the use of the original name and pronoun as a means of name-calling and harassment.”
Pronoun misuse today, as described in the quote above, would most likely be classed as transphobic bullying. And that brings us to how pronoun guidance is likely to be implemented in schools: Bí Cineálta/Cineáltas.
The use of alternative pronouns is almost exclusively associated with trans or non-binary identities. Issuing pronoun guidance implies a foundational belief within schools that humans can change sex.
BÍ CINÉALTA
Last year, every school in Ireland ratified the Bí Cineálta anti-bullying policy. While it is questionable that it will be effective in resolving bullying behaviour, it serves as a conduit for introducing identity-based and gender ideologies on a whole-school, cross-curricular basis.
It is also the vehicle that will be used for children to implement the National LGBTIQ+ Strategy, which was published last summer – post-ratification. At no stage were parents consulted about our children being taught to prioritise LGBTIQ+ demands over their own best interests.
The Department of Education ensured that the term transphobic bullying was included in this policy and this was put beyond any parental input.
Transphobic bullying is referenced in Bí Cineálta, Athena Swan, the TUTOR report, and the Being LGBT document under review. It is therefore reasonable to expect any forthcoming pronoun guidance to be implemented through the Bí Cineálta framework, already in place and aligned with the ideology.
This effectively makes Bí Cineálta the Athena Swan of schools. It won’t be law, but within schools and institutions it will function like one — a policy expectation, creating pressure to comply even where legal protections differ.
The Department of Education is pressing ahead with gender ideology in schools, even as other countries, like Italy, Poland, England and Northern Ireland, take a more cautious approach. The Cass Review and US HHS report warn of the risks of social transition in schools, including pronoun use – while the UK Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the sex binary was another pivotal moment.
In the US, several gender-affirming clinics have stopped their affirming care models, and just as Ireland’s pronoun review was being announced, a 22-year-old woman in New York was awarded $2 million in damages over a gender-affirming double mastectomy at age 16.
All of this and more is still largely ignored in Ireland — especially in schools, where the ideology continues to be prioritised and enforced. It seems very unlikely that putting Maynooth academics on the pronoun review will be anything other than more of the same in Irish Schools
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Dr Niamh Regan is a scientist and career coach based in County Meath. She has a PhD in Chemistry from National University of Ireland, Galway and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Limerick in the Materials and Surfaces Science Institute. She later completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, followed by a diploma in Web Applications, and has worked in teaching, lecturing and educational development roles.
She currently runs her own career coaching practice and engages with education from the perspective of a concerned parent. She maintains a strong interest in curriculum, policy and wider developments in the sector. Dr Regan is a mother of one primary school–aged child.