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Subscribe to Desktop - The Editorial Page RSS Feed Ireland: New Prohibition on Blasphemy To link to this article, copy this
persistent link: (Jan. 08, 2010) On January 1, 2010, new provisions contained in the Defamation Act, 2009 of the Republic of Ireland, on prohibiting the making of blasphemous statements, came into effect. The relevant section of the new law states that a person "publishes or utters blasphemous matter" if the material "is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents … and he or she intends … to cause such outrage." (Defamation Act, 2009 (Act No. 31/2009), §36, IRISH STATUTE BOOK, http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2009/en/act/pub/0031/index.html (last visited Jan. 5, 2010).) The law does provide, however, that it is a valid defense "to prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter" (id.). The maximum penalty for making a blasphemous statement under the new law is a fine of €25,000 (about US $36,000) (id.). The law also authorizes members of the Garda Siochana to obtain warrants to search for and seize blasphemous matter (§37, id.). The new Irish law on blasphemy has been
sharply criticized by many political commentators. Some critics see it as
being "medieval" and other as an extension of "political correctness."
(See, for example, Karla Adam, Atheists Challenged Ireland's New Blasphemy
Law with Online Postings, THE WASHINGTON POST, Jan 3, 2010, available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR201001 However, article 40(6)(i) of the Irish
Constitution provides that the right of freedom of speech guaranteed by
the Constitution is subject to an exception that states that blasphemy is
to be punished in accordance with the law. (Irish Constitution, 1937 [Nov.
2004 ed.], Department of the Taoiseach [Prime Minister] website, http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications Thus, in enacting a new Defamation Act, the Government felt obliged to include a new prohibition on blasphemy, even though it had only tried to enforce the prior 1961 law on one occasion; in that instance, the Supreme Court of Ireland had held that the relevant provision was too vague to be enforceable. (Corway v. Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Limited, [1999] IESC 5, July 30, 2009, Supreme Court of Ireland Decisions, BAILII [British and Irish Legal Information Institute] online databases, available at http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/1999/5.html.) One alternative to adopting new blasphemy
provisions would have been to amend the Constitution. However, that
alternative would have required the holding of an expensive referendum.
Members of Parliament committed to redefining the offense of blasphemy in
Ireland opposed that option. (Walsh, supra.)
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