Ireland’s blasphemy law has had a long, ineffective and undistinguished tradition Wendy Shea’s cartoon depicted politicians John Bruton, Proinsias de Rossa and Ruairi Quinn walking past a priest distributing communion: the tagline was “Hello Progress – Bye Bye Father” – a play on the anti-divorce campaign slogan “Hello Divorce – Bye Bye Daddy” Between questions of campaign financing, the cost of the presidency and endless eyebrow-raising caused by what candidates think they can do with the position, the referendum on blasphemy is at risk of causing many voters surprise when they receive two ballot papers on October 26th. While the Constitution requires that the State define blasphemy as a criminal offence the law, as it currently stands, is pretty much unenforceable. After independence the State relied on inherited British common law custom and practice in relation to the law on blasphemy. This continued even after the introduction of the Defamation Act 1961 which provided for updated penalties but did not provide a written definition of blasphemy. This common law tradition finally came a cropper in 1996 when one concerned citizen sought to bring private prosecutions against Hot Press, The Irish Times, and The Sunday Independent over their coverage of […]
