Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘PROBE’ INTO GAYBO SHOW
Gardai ‘inquiry’ over comments by Stephen Fry
GARDAI are reportedly probing if comments made on Gay Byrne’s The Meaning of Life show breached Ireland’s blasphemy laws.
TV star Stephen Fry spoke at length on the RTE programme about his views on God in February 2015.
When asked by Byrne what he would say at the gates of Heaven, Fry said he would quiz a “mean-minded God” on the universe.
The actor continued: “Bone cancer in children? What’s that about?
“How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault?
“It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?
“Because the God who created this universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac, utter maniac. Totally selfish.
“We have to spend our life on our knees thanking him. What kind of God would do that?”
Fry’s comments received praise on social media and a YouTube clip of him on the show has been viewed over seven million times. One man recently travelled to Ennis Garda station in Co Clare, to make an official complaint.
Officers in Donnybrook, Dublin, then made contact with the man to tell him the matter was being investigated.
He said: “I told the Garda I wanted to report Fry for uttering blasphemy and RTE for publishing/broadcasting it and that I believed these were criminal offences under the Defamation Act 2009.
“The Garda then took a formal written statement from me in which I quoted Fry’s comments in detail.
“This written statement mentioned both Fry and RTE specifically. I had not personally been offended by Fry’s comments. I added that I simply believed that the comments made by Fry on RTE were criminal blasphemy and that I was doing my civic duty by reporting a crime.”
A source told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “An investigation has been launched. It does seem, however, that it might not go anywhere.
“The law states that a comment or claim is only blasphemous if it intentionally causes outrage to a large number of people associated with a particular religion. I don’t think these comments did.
“Under current laws, the Defamation Act 2009 states that anyone publishing or uttering blasphemous material could be fined up to €25,000 if found guilty.
“There are no known cases of blasphemy being brought before the courts here.”
Ireland is the only country in the developed world to have such laws.
In 2015, atheist speaker Richard Dawkins led a campaign to have Ireland’s blasphemy laws repealed.
Atheist Ireland spokesman John Hamill said: “These laws don’t just act to silence Irish citizens at home.
“Ireland stands out as legislating for the recent views expressed by the Pope… that one cannot insult another person’s faith.
“We view this position of the Irish State as totally unacceptable and we have an active campaign to arrange a referendum.”
RTE wouldn’t comment on the claims yesterday.
I told the Garda I wanted to report Fry for uttering blasphemy ANONYMOUS MAN WHO COMPLAINED TO GARDAI