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Michael Nugent

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For the American football placekicker, see Mike Nugent.
Michael Nugent
Michael Nugent
Born (1961-06-01) June 1, 1961 (age 63)
Dublin, Ireland
NationalityIrish
EducationSt. Aidan's C.B.S.
Dublin Institute of Technology
Occupation(s)Writer and activist
Known forWriting I, Keano; Challenging Irish blasphemy law
TitleChairperson, Atheist Ireland
Websitehttp://www.michaelnugent.com
http://twitter.com/micknugent

Michael Nugent (born 1 June 1961) is an Irish writer and activist. He has written or co-written five books and the comedy musical play I, Keano. He has campaigned on many political issues, and he is chairperson of the advocacy group Atheist Ireland. He argues that atheism provides a better model of reality, and a better basis for morality, than believing in gods; that atheists can enjoy the benefits that many people get from religion, without the harmful effects; and that the state should be secular, promoting neither religion nor atheism.[1] He writes a blog about happiness and atheism, and he supports Bohemians and Leeds United football clubs.

Early life

Nugent attended St. Aidan's C.B.S. secondary school in Whitehall in Dublin. He graduated in visual communications in 1983 at the College of Marketing and Design, now part of the Dublin Institute of Technology. He has since addressed graduate events at both institutions.[2][3][4] In 1983, he was elected president of the college students' union and students' representative on the Dublin City Council Vocational Education Committee.[5][6] In 1984, he was defeated when he ran for the post of education officer in the Union of Students in Ireland, in opposition to Joe Duffy, then USI president, who is now a broadcaster with RTE. He then took a course in product development, and set up as a freelance designer.[7]

Writing

Works

  • MichaelNugent.com, a blog about happiness, atheism and life, 2008
  • I, Keano, comedy musical play with Arthur Mathews and Paul Woodfull, 2005
  • Absurdly Yours – The Michael Nugent Letters, 2004 ISBN 1-84131-671-7
  • That’s Ireland – A Miscellany, with Damien Corless, 2003 ISBN 1-84131-633-4
  • Ireland on the Internet – The Definitive Guide, 1995 ISBN 0-86121-647-4
  • Dear Me – The Diary of John Mackay, 1994 ISBN 0-86121-615-6
  • Dear John – The John Mackay Letters, with Sam Smyth, 1993 ISBN 0-86121-550-8 (hardback ISBN 0-86121-530-3)

Theatre

Nugent, with Arthur Mathews and Paul Woodfull, co-wrote I, Keano, a comedy musical play about footballer Roy Keane leaving the Republic of Ireland national football team before the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It was presented as a mock-epic melodrama about an ancient Roman legion preparing for war.[8][9] In its first two years, over half a million people watched it, generating €10m ($13m) in ticket sales.[10]

Books

Dear John was a number one bestseller in Ireland[11][12][13], co-written by Nugent and Sam Smyth.[14] By writing prank letters, Nugent and Smyth convinced then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds to help the fictitious ‘John’ seek a grant from the Industrial Development Authority to produce dog bowls modelled on dinner plates; prompted Charles Haughey to meet ‘John’ to help fund a 'Bring Back Charlie' campaign, and provoked Pope John Paul II to pray for 'John's' children because his kids put condoms on the family chess-set bishops.[15]

The Irish Times included Ireland on the Internet among its top ten computer books of 1995.[16] That’s Ireland – A Miscellany, co-written with Damien Corless, was a hardback bestseller[17] that included such trivia as that three in every ten TDs since 1922 have been called some variation of Paddy, Mick, Sean or Seamus, and that when the Pope held his youth Mass in Galway in 1979, each diocese was asked to send a baker in white overalls and a lame person with a stick or crutches.[18][19][20]

In Absurdly Yours, Nugent pitched a new series of prank letters, ranging from planes without seats (for Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary) to scaffolding on Mount Everest (the Nepalese Government responded it would be "inappropriate"). The FAI offered to help with his invention of a left-footed football, but the GAA replied that they could detect a wind-up from 1,000 yards.[21]

Activism

In 1986, Nugent joined the newly-founded Progressive Democrats, working with Michael Keating TD who he had befriended during his VEC days. He soon left the PDs, saying that he was disillusioned with the clientilist system and that he believed in the need to tackle the Northern Ireland problem on a cross-party basis.[22]

In the late 1980s, Nugent was spokesperson for a campaign against the conviction of two Tallaght youths for robbery and assault. In 1990, Taoiseach Charles Haughey assured the youths’ families and Nugent that new evidence would be considered.[23][24] In 1993, the government announced a new law to enable this to happen and, in 2001, the case was declared a miscarriage of justice.[25][26]

New Consensus

In 1988, Nugent co-founded the New Consensus peace group with his partner Anne Holliday and Michael Fitzpatrick. He also chaired the group. Its launch meeting in April 1989 announced its aims as challenging ambivalence about murder in Northern Ireland, and promoting a democratic, pluralist and non-sectarian society.[27]

In 1992, after an IRA bomb killed eight Protestant workmen in Teebane Cross, Nugent and six other men protested by chaining themselves across the entrance of the Sinn Féin office in Dublin.[28] New Consensus also organised peace rallies and pickets of Sinn Féin and UDA offices, and collections of flowers after paramilitary killings.[29][30][31]

Sinn Fein regularly complained that New Consensus did not protest against violence by the security forces in Northern Ireland,[32] and some peace groups, such as Peace 93 and the Peace Train Organisation, distanced themselves from the political aims of New Consensus.[33] In 1996, Nugent, Holliday and Fitzpatrick won a libel action against the Irish author Tim Pat Coogan, who had wrongly written that New Consensus had grown out of the Official IRA.[34][35]

Veritas

In 1992, Nugent highlighted that Veritas, a bookshop owned by the Catholic Bishops, was breaking the law by selling an anti-abortion book, Closed by Joseph Scheidler, which contained abortion clinic contact details for potential protestors.[36] Under Irish law at the time no contact details of any abortion service could be published.

Joycean home

In 1996, he organised an email campaign to protest against the proposed demolition of James Joyce’s childhood home in Drumcondra.[37]

Council election candidate

In 1999, he was a local election candidate for Dublin City Council, running for the opposition Fine Gael party, but he failed to be elected.[38][39]

European Investment Bank

In 2000, Nugent helped to stop the Irish government appointing a disgraced former judge, Hugh O’Flaherty, to the European Investment Bank. The Bank accepted Nugent’s argument that they had a statutory duty to consider other candidates, and he forwarded the CV of Irish Senator and business editor Shane Ross.[40][41] After public pressure, O'Flaherty withdrew his candidacy.[42]

Nugent supports Bohemians and Leeds United football clubs.[43] In 2002, he helped to prevent the Football Association of Ireland from selling broadcast rights for international matches to Sky television, but failed in an attempt to create a representative body for Irish football fans.[44] In 2008, he was removed as a director of Bohemian Football Club after he questioned the viability of the club’s growing expenditure.[45] Two years later, the club was reported to be entering the most critical stage in its history.[46]

Atheist Ireland

Nugent is the inaugural chairperson of Atheist Ireland, an advocacy group for an ethical and secular society free from superstition and supernaturalism. Its first AGM in July 2009 outlined specific aims, including the removal of references to God from the Irish constitution, the introduction of a secular education system, and a campaign to encourage people to read the Bible.[47]

As chairperson of Atheist Ireland, Nugent has strongly opposed the law against blasphemous libel introduced by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern and passed by the Oireachtas in July 2009. Nugent described it as "silly and dangerous", and argued that ideas should always be open to criticism and ridicule.[48][49] As part of the campaign, he was involved in the formation of the parody Church of Dermotology, which satirises organised religion and the concept of blasphemy[50], and in the launch of a website opposing the bill, called Blasphemy.ie. When the law came into force on 1 January 2010, Atheist Ireland published a list of 25 blasphemous quotes on this website to challenge it.[51][52][53][54] In March 2010 the Justice Minister proposed that a referendum should be held to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution.[55]

Nugent also used the blasphemy law to highlight other areas of the Irish Constitution which he felt were anomalous. He pointed out that to become a judge, a member of the Irish Council of State, or President of Ireland, a candidate must first swear a religious oath. He said that amendments were immediately required to address all such issues.[56]

In June 2010, Nugent spoke at the Gods and Politics international atheist conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.[57] In August he called for the removal of the daily Angelus from RTE, saying that it amounted to a free advert for the Catholic church, and he debated the issue on RTE radio with Roger Childs, RTE’s editor of religious programmes.[58][59][60] In October he addressed a meeting in Brussels at which the Presidents of the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council discussed the fight against poverty and social exclusion with representatives of philosophical non-confessional organisations.[61]

Media

Nugent has been profiled or interviewed in the Irish Times [62], the Sunday Business Post [63], the Sunday Independent [64] and the BBC Mundo Spanish language website.[65] He has been interviewed on various broadcast media including the BBC World Service [66], NPR’s All Things Considered [67], and RTE’s Prime Time [68], Ryan Tubridy [69], Spirit Moves [70] and Seoige and O’Shea.[71]

References

  1. ^ Give us a state that's not religious nor atheist, but secular Michael Nugent, Irish Times, 19 October 2010
  2. ^ Awards night St. Aidan's C.B.S., September 2005
  3. ^ DIT end of year exhibition Irish Times, 1 June 2004
  4. ^ DIT presents the most wide-ranging graduate exhibition in Ireland Dublin Institute of Technology, 1 June 2004
  5. ^ Fees at VEC colleges to be increased by up to 125% Maev-Ann Wren, Irish Times, 29 July 1983
  6. ^ College ‘may be forced to close’ Irish Times, 1 March 1984
  7. ^ Saturday profile: a man with his own agenda Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, 3 April 1993
  8. ^ Review of I, Keano, Anthony Garvey, The Stage, 17 February 2005
  9. ^ Review of I, Keano, James Ducker, The Times, 2 March 2006
  10. ^ I, Keano still has fans in raptures Irish Examiner, 31 January 2007
  11. ^ Bestsellers Irish Times, 11 December 1993
  12. ^ Bestsellers Irish Times, 8 January 1994
  13. ^ Bestsellers Irish Times, 29 January 1994
  14. ^ Dear John letters catch social pillars on the hop Tom Reddy, Sunday Independent, 8 November 1993
  15. ^ Two wits to woo Review of That’s Ireland, Henry McDonald, The Observer, 1 February 2004
  16. ^ Dead trees and ink '95 Michael Cunningham, Irish Times, 14 December 1995
  17. ^ Bestsellers Sunday Independent, 7 March 2004
  18. ^ You couldn’t make it up Review of That’s Ireland, Brian Boyd, Irish Times, 14 November 2003
  19. ^ Reference book of the ridiculous Review of That’s Ireland, Sunday Business Post, 23 November 2003
  20. ^ Two wits to woo Review of That’s Ireland, Henry McDonald, The Observer, 1 Feb 2004
  21. ^ You can fool some of the people Review of Absurdly Yours, Liam Mackey, Irish Examiner, 27 November 2004
  22. ^ Saturday profile: a man with his own agenda Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, 3 April 1993
  23. ^ Haughey assures Tallaght father on son’s case Jackie Gallagher, Irish Times, 24 October 1990
  24. ^ Second man in Tallaght case released Michael Foley, Irish Times, 25 October 1990
  25. ^ Tallaght men say campaign to clear names continues Jim Dunne and Edward O’Loughlin, Irish Times, 10 April 1993
  26. ^ Court declares miscarriage of justice in Tallaght Two case RTÉ News, 20 March 2001
  27. ^ New Consensus group launches constitution Irish Times, 25 April 1989
  28. ^ Bomb protest at Sinn Fein HQ Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 21 January 1992
  29. ^ Groups work in tandem against terrorist violence Jim Cusack, Irish Times, 29 March 1993
  30. ^ Minute’s silence before match sought for pub victims Elaine Keogh, Irish Times, 24 June 1994
  31. ^ TDs take part in protest picket Irish Times, 4 February 1991
  32. ^ Groups work in tandem against terrorist violence Jim Cusack, Irish Times, 29 March 1993
  33. ^ Saturday profile: a man with his own agenda Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, 3 April 1993
  34. ^ Coogan IRA book withdrawn in legal row Geraldine Collins, Irish Independent, 16 September 1995
  35. ^ Peace group paid damages by author, publishers Irish Times, 28 October 1996
  36. ^ Challenge to Veritas anti-abortion book Paul O'Neill, Irish Times, 17 February 1992
  37. ^ Cyberworld Rallies to Defend House of Artist as Young Man Frank McDonald, Irish Times, 21 June 1996
  38. ^ Of the community, by the community Brendan O’Connor, Sunday Independent, 6 June 1999
  39. ^ Nugent’s local election performance in 1999 ElectionsIreland.Org
  40. ^ Bank is prepared to see other candidates Mark Brennock, Irish Times, 1 July 2000
  41. ^ EIB Must Retain Independence in Decision-making Michael Nugent, Irish Times, 8 June 2000
  42. ^ Historic defeat for cronyism as Hugh O’Flaherty bows out Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times, 2 September 2000
  43. ^ You can fool some of the people Review of Absurdly Yours, Liam Mackey, Irish Examiner, 27 November 2004
  44. ^ Fans Forum Hopes to Unite Varied Interests Mary Hannigan, Irish Times, 19 July 2002
  45. ^ Bohs crisis intensifies as Nugent forced out Neil Ahern, Irish Independent, 7 August 2008
  46. ^ Bohs in bother but League must take share of blame Mark Gallagher, Mail on Sunday, 22 August 2010
  47. ^ Blasphemy law a return to middle ages - Dawkins Alison Healy, Irish Times, 13 July 2009
  48. ^ Father Ted creators back challenge to the blasphemy bill Henry McDonald, The Observer, 5 July 2009
  49. ^ Blasphemy law is silly, dangerous and unjust Michael Nugent, Irish Times, 10 July 2009
  50. ^ Senator David Norris welcomes Nugent and Church of Dermotology Transcript of Seanad debate, 9 July 2009
  51. ^ Irish atheists challenge new blasphemy laws Henry McDonald, The Guardian, 1 January 2010
  52. ^ Atheists challenge blasphemy law Sarah McInerney, Sunday Times, 3 January 2010
  53. ^ Atheists challenge Ireland's new blasphemy law Karla Adam, Washington Post, 3 January 2010
  54. ^ Links to news coverage of challenge to blasphemy law Blasphemy.ie, 1–7 January 2010
  55. ^ Ahern proposes Autumn referendum on blasphemy Sunday Times, 14 March 2010
  56. ^ Atheists fight to keep God out of Irish law Henry McDonald, The Observer, 3 May 2009
  57. ^ Speakers Gods and Politics, 18-20 June 2010
  58. ^ Angelus still ringing with controversy 60 years on Conall O Fatharta, Irish Examiner, 18 August 2010
  59. ^ Sixty years of the Angelus Ruth McDonald, Sunday Sequence, BBC Radio Ulster, 20 August 2010
  60. ^ The Angelus Brenda Donohue, Mooney Goes Wild, RTE Radio 1, 24 August 2010
  61. ^ Press release and list of participants European Commission, 15 October 2010
  62. ^ Saturday profile: a man with his own agenda Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, 3 April 1993
  63. ^ First Person Alex Meehan, Sunday Business Post, 28 June 2009
  64. ^ Of the community, by the community Brendan O’Connor, Sunday Independent, 6 June 1999
  65. ^ Ateismo: “No descarto nada” BBC Mundo, 7 August 2009
  66. ^ Does Democracy have to be secular? BBC World Service, 23 June 2009
  67. ^ Irish befuddled by new blasphemy law - All Things Considered NPR, 12 January 2010
  68. ^ Report on Irish blasphemy law - Prime Time RTE, 12 January 2010
  69. ^ Radio interview about atheism - Part 1 part 2 Ryan Tubridy Show, RTE, 1 July 2009
  70. ^ Radio interview about the Christian heritage of Europe Spirit Moves, RTE, 17 May 2009
  71. ^ TV interview about I, Keano Seoige and O’Shea, RTE, 24 January 2007
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