The public goes to the polls on 26 October.
This Friday, the Irish public will make its decision on who will be President of Ireland for the next seven years.
However, much less has been said about Friday’s upcoming blasphemy referendum. The long and short of it is that we’ll be voting on whether or not to remove the constitutional requirement that blasphemy remains illegal under Irish law.
Right now, blasphemy is technically illegal in Ireland. The Constitution says that the publication or utterance of something blasphemous must be a criminal offence.
In order to commit blasphemy, two factors are required. Somebody or some publication must publish or say something that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion. Second, they must have intended to cause the outrage.
This is contained within the Defamation Act 2009.
It is a defence if they can prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic value in what they published or said. If convicted of this offence, a person may be fined up to €25,000. There is no option of sentencing someone convicted of this offence to prison.
Then-Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has since spoken about the law, saying on Sean O’Rourke: “We implemented the crime but made it in a way that it would be virtually impossible to prosecute.”
However, the Gardaí have investigated complaints regarding the law. For example, one person called the Gardaí on Stephen Fry over comments he made about God when appearing on RTÉ’s The Meaning of Life. Gardaí confirmed in 2017 that they investigated the complaint.
No prosecution was brought against Fry, but it demonstrated that the law can be acted upon if enough criteria are met.
Specifically, Article 40.6.1˚ of the Constitution says:
The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality: –
The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions. The education of public opinion being, however, a matter of such grave import to the common good, the State shall endeavour to ensure that organs of public opinion, such as the radio, the press, the cinema, while preserving their rightful liberty of expression, including criticism of Government policy, shall not be used to undermine public order or morality or the authority of the State.
The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.
If Friday’s referendum is passed, the word ‘blasphemous’ will be removed from the above text.
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