The offence of Blasphemy has been officially scrapped.
It comes after the Irish people voted to repeal the law criminalising blasphemy from the Constitution with 65% in favour.
In commencing the legislation today, the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said the “very notion of criminalising blasphemy, with the risk of a chilling effect on free expression and public debate, has no place in the Constitution or the laws of a modern Republic.”
“Ireland is a country of increasing diversity,” he said.
“The right to express differing viewpoints in a forthright and critical manner is a right to be cherished and upheld.”
File photo of tellers counting the ballot papers and votes in the Presidential election and Blasphemy Referendum, 27-10-2018. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNewsBlasphemy
He said the legislation also removes “all identified references to blasphemy” in Irish law – including in relation to the censorship of films.
“I would like to emphasise that these changes are not an attack on religious beliefs,” he said. “Nor are they intended to privilege one set of values over another.”
This morning, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the new legislation is a “wonderful leap forward” for human rights in this country.
Free speech
Executive Director Liam Herrick said it marks an important day for freedom of expression.
“It is very positive news that we see from the Government today that they are implementing the result of the Referendum on Blasphemy,” he said.
“We are now seeing a landmark on the road towards free speech and against censorship in Ireland.”
Persecution
Minister Flanagan said the new legislation is a “simple acknowledgement that the meaning of the concept of blasphemy is unclear in a modern State and that the concept is rooted in a distant past where fealty to the State was conflated with fealty to a particular religion.”
He noted that it “may seem abstract” to devote time to removing an offence that has “not been prosecuted in practice”- but warned that a number of countries still hand down severe penalties for the offence and use it to justify the persecution of dissidents.
He said these countries have used the Irish offence of blasphemy as a justification for their actions.
He said that “has always been a very disturbing reality” and noted that the repeal of the legislation ensures Ireland can never again be cited as an example by repressive nations.
