ABSTRACT
The tendency in some circles is to equate religious education (RE) in the United Kingdom with British RE, and then equate British RE with RE in England. There is some logic to these reductions, but it is not compelling. Such a strategy fails to capture the diversity of arrangements, policies and accommodations that characterise RE in the four nations that comprise the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Certainly there is a case for considering England and Wales together, for both are subject to the same legislation, and this is the strategy adopted below, yet attention to the fact that there are two different sets of national guidelines to interpret the legislation (QCA 2004; DCELLS 2008) should caution against overhasty reductions or generalisations. Scotland and Northern Ireland are considered separately. This account of RE in the United Kingdom is then complemented by an account of RE in the Republic of Ireland; this adds a comparative dimension that is often overlooked by religious educators.
