It is scandalous that a religion in this day and age can use the law of the state to attack freedom of speech. Absolutely scandalous. Will we ever shake off the dark shackles of this church? Will it yet take us back to the dark days of Laundries and paedophilia and nobody prepared to speak out? The all powerful bishop and kowtowing politician?
To make it worse Irish Catholic lawyers are encouraging people outside of Ireland to use the Irish Blasphemy Law to complain “to prevent a crime occurring in that Country”. They appear to actively seeking to stir up a controversy:
“The more complaints they have on record the more likely it is that they will have to act. Also the offence of blasphemy is judged by how "outraged" people really are, so complaints will be evidence of that.”
What next – Pakistan using our own blasphemy law to stifle freedom of speech in Ireland?
Fine Gael said before the election that it thought that blasphemy was not a crime. It is now time for them to put an end to this shameful state of affairs. They should revoke the 2009 law and take the opportunity of the presidential election and judges’ referendum in the autumn to have a referendum on removing the reference to blasphemy in the constitution.
Of course these Catholics still try to claim Ireland as their's. Witness Bishop Buckley’s comment:
"Respect for Mary, the mother of God, is bred in the bones of Irish people and entwined in their lives."
No, fear of the power of the parish priest and the shadow of the church-run institutions was bred into the bones of the Irish people. Not to mention the fact that Ireland is no longer a particularly Catholic country.
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