Buoyed by its recent success in the referendum on legalising abortion, Ireland’s government is now
turning its sights on another clause in our constitution: the ban on blasphemy, says The Irish Times.
A referendum on the issue, scheduled for October, “is long overdue”. Ireland’s Law Reform
Commission recommended in 1991 that the now eight-decade-old prohibition be scrapped; so
did the 2013 Constitutional Convention. But the rarely used blasphemy clause seemed trivial until
2015, when British comedian Stephen Fry appeared on an Irish TV programme about the meaning
of life and said God was stupid, selfish and “quite clearly a maniac”. A single concerned viewer
in County Clare reported Fry to the police, and much time and money was wasted on an official
investigation that, ultimately, resulted in a decision not to prosecute – due to the lack of an injured
party. Of course, we shouldn’t allow a free-for-all of religious defamation: the constitutional ban
can be replaced by a simple law barring incitement to religious hatred. And while we’re at it, the
referendum should also ask the Irish to remove the constitutional clause that suggests that mothers
should not neglect “their duties in the home”. Let Irish law “reflect the modern world”.
