Madam, – Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern’s protestations of helplessness regarding his obligation to legislate for the crime of blasphemy (Opinion, May 1st) ring a little hollow, when the record of this and previous governments is examined in any detail.
Throughout the piece the Minister asserts that the offence must be enshrined in legislation if the Constitution is not to be amended to remove the provision on blasphemy. This, of course, simply begs the question why the Constitution should not be amended in the first place. The Minister’s single-mindedness about protecting the integrity of the Constitution might be admirable if it were consistent.
However, his party and previous partners in government have never before shown a reticence about bringing forward Constitutional amendments where politically expedient (most recently in the referendum changing the law relating to Irish citizenship).
Rather more unpalatable, however, is the zeal with which the Minister is pushing through this provision on the basis of his supposed Constitutional obligations when viewed against the continued failure of this and successive Governments to legislate on the question of abortion in Ireland, in line with the Constitutional position as set out in the X case judgment.
The Minister himself notes that only one blasphemy case has been taken in the case since the 1937 Constitution was enacted.
Surely this suggests that there are more pressing matters of concern than that of blasphemy (by definition a victimless crime). Contrast that with the plight of the thousands of Irish women forced to travel to the UK every year, and the successive cases brought before the Irish courts in an attempt to vindicate their rights, and it becomes clear where the priorities of this Minister, and this Government, truly lie. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Following on from Fianna Fáil joining the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), last month, shouldn’t Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern be attempting to strengthen liberal values, such as freedom of speech, instead of restricting them by legislating for the offence of blasphemous libel (Page 1, April 29th)? Or is this merely a case of Fianna Fáil joining a group for reasons of convenience and paying lip-service to liberalism? – Yours, etc,