The Government’s proposal to totally remove the offence of blasphemy from both the Constitution and statute law [1] would render as protected speech even the most vile denigrations of religion, former Attorney General, Michael McDowell, has said.
Speaking in the Seanad, Senator McDowell said that repealing the blasphemy provisions of the Defamation Act will mean nobody, in any circumstances, can ever be prosecuted for publishing something offensive to religious sensibility no matter how gross or grotesque. This would, he said, declare it absolutely “open season to say or do anything in public which outrages religious sentiment.”
Mr McDowell said he thinks most people do not know this is the intention of the Government, nor would they support it even if they knew. “I do not believe that the people would be happy to see every single vestige of protection of religion from premeditated and vicious blasphemy swept away in the name of liberalism – and I speak as a liberal on that. People are entitled to have some basic standards of decency or public morality enshrined in the law with regard to the protection of religion. It is not a great expansion of freedom to tear down every barrier surrounding the sacredness to individuals of their religious beliefs”.