Secondary schools in Ireland are still discriminating against children based on their religion – and legally they are allowed to do so.

On Lunchtime Live, Dublin mother Natalia Anolan described the situation her family is in with secondary school places.

“We've found ourselves in this really strange situation in terms of applying to one of the feeder schools from our primary school,” she said.

“So I've got identical twin boys and like most parents in six class [we have] put in all the applications to different schools, but there is one particular school that most of the boys in in our primary school do go to.

“Now what I will say in terms of the admission is that the boys don't have a brother in the school and my husband went to another secondary school in the area - so we knew we would be a little bit down the pecking order in terms of that admission criteria.”

Christening of baby girl in a rural church Co. Meath Ireland. Image: Alamy

Ms Anolan said herself and her husband weren’t “losing their minds” when they didn’t get a place in the school on the first round.

“But you know yourself, all the texts are coming around on the WhatsApp and we were realising… nearly everybody has got in,” she said.

“In the letter it just said the school is oversubscribed, they didn't get a place but that we could ring and just see where they are on the waiting list.

“So we were like, grand, no drama, sure we'll give them a buzz and that could give an indication of where they are.

“So when my husband rang… we realised that they were like 250 and 200 on the waiting list.”

Students in lesson at Secondary School, Image: Roger Askew/Alamy Stock Photo

Ms Anolan said they were really surprised how far down the list their children were, given that they were in the feeder primary school.

“So we were looking through the admissions policy and I will admit that we didn't look at the admission policies in absolute detail before we were applying to all the schools because we've been through the rigmarole with our daughter and eventually she did get school she wanted,” she said.

“All their friends say their friends that don't have brothers and dads [previously in the school] and that kind of thing, they're much, much higher - like 14 or 20 on the list.

“I think the lowest was 48 from their school, which was to be expected, because it's like a feeder school.

“So there was a lot of emails going back and forth and then we were looking at the admission criteria in more minute detail and realised they've actually got two categories - a Catholic category and then they've got everybody else.”

Young child being christened by a vicar and watched by the parents in England. Image: Alamy

Ms Anolan blamed her “own ignorance” for not realising that the baptism barrier wasn’t gone in secondary schools.

“We thought the baptism barrier was gone in secondary schools, now, subsequently, we realise it's not - it's only gone in primary schools,” she said.

“So then we got in contact with the educational welfare officer in the area that kind of gave us hope [and said we] should make an appeal to the Department of Education - it's discriminatory based on religion.

“Then I got another call from another education welfare officer who had seen my email and she just said to me [that we] have no hope with that school, they have the admission policy so sewn up.”

Secondary school children walking home in England, UK in March 2022. Picture by: Sam Oaksey / Alamy Stock Photo

Also on the show, primary school principal Simon Lewis said having these laws still in place for secondary schools is “baffling”.

“I don't have good news for Natalia, because legally the law allows for secondary schools to discriminate on I suppose two of the nine grounds of discrimination - one is gender and one is religion,” he said.

“She's obviously in the religion end of things but also because it's an all-boys school, they can discriminate against girls.”

The principal said Ireland has a “very tangled education system”.

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Main image: Split image showing empty desk and chair in school (R) and baby being baptised (L)