We must keep blasphemy in Constitution
VOTING yes in the blasphemy referendum is not a blow for freedom, but at one level an attack upon all freedom of speech and the public practice of religion, and at a deeper level an attack upon all freedom.
Our Constitution lists the prohibition of blasphemy under freedom of speech and fundamental freedoms. It is like the ‘Queensberry Rules’ of boxing. In a true democracy there can be no freedom of speech unless the powerful are restrained from using their power against the weak.
Irish folk, themselves oppressed for half a millennium, do not oppress. Our very first President and defender of the 1937 Constitution was Church of Ireland member Douglas Hyde.
Toleration of difference and freedom of speech is not just an Irishman’s badge of honour but something that he thrives on. It is part of who we are. We’d be bored to death in a world without it!
Our light touch constitutional prohibition, together with the 2009 Anti Defamation Act based upon it, have been proven to be legally unenforceable. So blasphemy occurs day in, day out and nothing happens.
Indeed, a prosecution for blasphemy in Ireland would sound like the start of an Irish joke. No sweat. We can live with it.
But what happens if we vote Yes to scrap all prohibition? Firstly, there will be no danger of being bored, because the secularists and atheists will start to have their field day. They will immediately move on to scrap the Preamble to the Constitution, which sets the whole context in which it was framed and in which alone it can be properly understood.
So the apparently innocuous scrapping of the one word ‘blasphemous’ will probably lead to the scrapping of the whole Constitution, at least as we know it.
From there on in, our rights will be worked and re-worked for us solely by the democratic process.
For example, no longer would – or could – our Constitution recognise ‘the inalienable and imprescriptible rights (of the family), antecedent and superior to all positive law’ (Art 41.1).
Democracy is a fragile plant and no match for modern methods of propaganda backed by big money. Unleashing the dragons of money and power means in effect that ‘might is right’. We all know where ‘the will to power’ led in the last century. So no fear of boredom either way. But please vote NO.
BRIAN FLANAGAN, Buncrana, Co. Donegal.
Where’s the justice?
SO a high-ranking garda can accuse and persecute an innocent man, and concoct with his boss fairy stories about his colleague who was only doing his job, and reporting glaring inefficiencies in An Garda Síochána! The worst part about this story is that having been suspended from his job, he now decides he’ll just walk away, with a full pension and more than likely a lump sum as well.
Good riddance, I say, but where is the justice in all this fiasco? Not even a slap on the wrist. It just proves once again how rotten the whole system is, one law for them and screw the rest of us. I hope the new boss Drew Harris deals with this ASAP. VAL DAVIS, Crosshaven, Co. Cork.
Return to penal times
THE homelessness crisis is akin to penal times when rents were high and if a tenant fell into arrears he and his family were turfed out on the street. The bitter and unjust penal laws made hatred the birthright of a suffering people.
At present, overwhelming demand for housing in this country is driving rents sky-high and pricing people on rent allowance into homelessness. Some landlords are increasing the rents or terminating the lease, stating they need the property for a family member or that they need to redecorate the property.
People need to get legal advice before they vacate, from one of the many free legal aid centres
What do YOU think?
around the country, or go to Fr Peter McVerry or Focus Ireland, who do great work. Plus, this Government needs to get to grips with the huge problem and declare an emergency. NOEL HARRINGTON,
Kinsale, Co. Cork.