Sir, - The judgment of the Supreme Court in the John Corway Blasphemy prosecution (The Irish Times, July 31st) is indeed reassuring for its balance and good sense, indirectly facilitating the right to freedom of expression and equality. The prosecution was dismissed as the court held that it found it impossible to define what the offence of blasphemy was, notwithstanding its constitutional prohibition. The State, it held, was not "an arbiter of religious truth".
Contrast this with the position in England where blasphemy remains a punishable criminal offence, but apparently only in respect of blasphemy concerning the established church, the Church of England - other religions or beliefs neither having, nor - as the implication seems to be - needing, such draconian protection. This is the rather absurd and discriminatory result of the interpretation of the common law situation in the private prosecution brought in the late 1970s by that indefatigable guardian of English morals, Mrs Mary Whitehouse, against Gay News and its editor Denis Lemon, which arose out of the appearance in that publication of an obscure poem by a respectable English professor.
The storm in the tea-cup soon blew full gale. Mr Lemon was represented at the trial by John Mortimer QC, more famous, perhaps, as the creator of the fictional Rumpole of the Bailey. Readers who are interested will find a wonderfully entertaining account of the entire sorry affair in Mr Mortimer's autobiographical Murderers and Other Friends (Penguin, 1994). The jury convicted by a majority verdict, later upheld by the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. In England, therefore, it remains a crime - to quote Mr Mortimer's inimitable words - "to make Anglicans blush".
The Corway judgment has lobbed the task of defining the elements of the crime of blasphemy back to our legislators. If undertaken, this will prove a very difficult task fraught with legal and constitutional implications. One is inclined to feel that our legislators might follow Nelson's example and, for once, turn the blind eye. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Fitzpatrick, Tanavalla, Listowel, Co Kerry.