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The Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution is an
amendment to the constitution of Ireland Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland are only possible by way of referendum. A proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally s ...
which removed the constitution's requirement to criminalise "publication or utterance of
blasphemous Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...
matter". The amendment was effected by an
act of the Oireachtas The law of Ireland consists of constitutional, statute, and common law. The highest law in the State is the Constitution of Ireland, from which all other law derives its authority. The Republic has a common-law legal system with a written const ...
— the ''Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Act 2018'', which was introduced (as
bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...
no. 87 of 2018) in
Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland reads: ...
, passed by the Dáil and Seanad, approved by the people in a
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, and signed into law by the
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
. The bill was introduced to the Oireachtas on 13 July 2018 by the Fine Gael minority coalition government. A referendum was held on 26 October, on the same date as the
presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...
. A second referendum on whether to remove an article referring to women's place in the home, originally scheduled for the same date, was postponed until a later date. The amendment was approved by nearly 65% of the voters, and by a majority in every Dáil constituency. It was signed into law by the president on 27 November 2018. It was followed by separate legislation in 2019 to remove the crime of blasphemy from the statute book.


Background

The publication or utterance of blasphemous matter is an offence specified by the
Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland ( ga, Bunreacht na hÉireann, ) is the fundamental law of Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. The constitution, based on a system of representative democracy, is broadly within the traditio ...
as an exception to general guarantee of the right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions. In ''Corway v Independent Newspapers'' (1999), the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
held that the common law crime of
blasphemous libel Blasphemous libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. Today, it is an offence under the common law of Northern Ireland, but has been abolished in England and Wales, and repealed in Canada and New Zealand. It consists of t ...
related to an
established church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
and could not have survived the enactment of the Constitution. They also held that it was impossible to say what the offence of blasphemy consisted of. The offence of publishing or uttering blasphemous matter was first defined in Irish law in the Defamation Act 2009. Someone is guilty of the offence if they publish or utter "matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion", and they intend, "by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage". There is a broad defence where "a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter to which the offence relates". To date, there has not been a public prosecution for the offence of
blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...
in the Irish state. The Constitutional Convention held a session in November 2013, where they proposed replacing the offence of blasphemy in the Constitution with a prohibition on the incitement of religious hatred. The matter came to public attention, in May 2017, when it was announced that English comedian
Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, along with broadcaster
RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...
, were under criminal investigation for blasphemy under the Act, following a complaint from a member of the public about comments made by Fry in a 2015 broadcast interviewed with veteran Irish broadcaster
Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late Lat ...
. The case was dropped after Gardaí confirmed that they had not been able to locate a sufficient number of offended people. In June 2018, Minister for Justice and Equality
Charles Flanagan Charlie Flanagan (born 1 November 1956) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Laois–Offaly constituency since 2020, and previously from 1987 to 2002, 2007 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2020 for the Laois cons ...
announced that the government would hold a referendum to simply remove the reference to the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution.


Changes to the text

The Thirty-seventh Amendment amended the final sentence of paragraph i of subsection 1º of Article 40.6 by substituting "seditious" for "blasphemous, seditious,". The original text read: The text as amended reads:


Subsequent legislation

The
Department of Justice and Equality The Department of Justice ( ga, An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt) is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Justice who is assisted by a Ministers of State. The department's mission is to maintain and enhance community ...
's draft general scheme for subsequent legislation proposed that the Government introduce a formal Bill to repeal sections 36 and 37 of the Defamation Act 2009, which dealt with the 'Publication or utterance of blasphemous matter' and the 'Seizure of copies of blasphemous statements' respectively, as well as to replace the words "indecent, obscene, or blasphemous" by "indecent or obscene" in the Censorship of Films Act 1923 as amended by the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008, and in the Censorship of Films (Amendment) Act 1925. The Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Act 2019, enacted on 17 January 2020, removed these offences from statute law.


Passage through the Oireachtas

The Bill was proposed by Minister Charlie Flanagan and passed all stage in the Dáil on 18 September and all stages of the Seanad on 20 September. Amendments by
Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
to remove other religious references from the Constitution were ruled out of order. It was opposed in the Seanad by
Rónán Mullen Rónán Thomas Mullen (born 13 October 1970) is an Irish senator and former delegate to the Council of Europe. He is the leader of the Human Dignity Alliance, an anti-abortion political party formed in 2018. He was elected by the National Univ ...
.


Campaign

A
Referendum Commission A Referendum Commission ( ga, An Coimisiún Reifrinn) is an independent statutory body in Ireland which is set up in advance of any referendum. The Referendum Act 1998 as amended by the Referendum Act 2001 provides for the establishment of the bod ...
to provide information to the public on the proposed amendment was established on 18 July 2018.
Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage ( ga, An tAire Tithíochta, Rialtais Áitiúil agus Oidhreachta) is a senior minister in the Government of Ireland and leads the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The ...
Eoghan Murphy Eoghan Murphy (born Dublin, 23 April 1982) is a former Fine Gael politician who was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency from 2016 until 27 April 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2016 for the Dublin South-East constitu ...
signed the electoral order for the referendum on 21 September, setting the polling date as 26 October. By 17 October, there had been little public debate about the referendum, leading ''The Irish Times'' to suggest that this might cause most "Don't know" voters to end up voting "No" as had happened before in similar little-debated referendums, although it still expected the referendum to be carried based on the most recent opinion poll of 12 October.


For

Those who supported removing blasphemy from the constitution included: *
Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éir ...
*
Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian ...
*
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
* Labour Party *
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
*
People Before Profit People Before Profit ( ga, Pobal Roimh Bhrabús, PBP) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005. It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Histo ...
*
Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
*
Irish Council for Civil Liberties The Irish Council for Civil Liberties ( ga, An Chomhairle um Chearta Daonna) is an Irish non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the civil liberties and human rights of people in Ireland. History Founded in 1976 by future President Mary R ...
* Church of Ireland *
Atheist Ireland Atheist Ireland is an association of atheists based in Ireland. The group was initially founded by members of Atheist.ie, an online community which had been set up by Seamus Murnane in June 2006. Its current chairperson is writer and activist ...
* Justice Minister
Charles Flanagan Charlie Flanagan (born 1 November 1956) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Laois–Offaly constituency since 2020, and previously from 1987 to 2002, 2007 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2020 for the Laois cons ...
* Senator
Ivana Bacik Ivana Catherine Bacik (born 25 May 1968) is an Irish Labour Party politician who has been Leader of the Labour Party since 24 March 2022 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Bay South constituency since winning a by-election on 9 July 2 ...
* Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland


Not opposed

*
Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference ( ga, Comhdháil Easpag Caitliceach Éireann) is the episcopal conference of the Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland. The conference meets a number of times a year in Maynooth which is the location of St Patri ...
, who called the provision "obsolete" and said that similar laws have been used to justify violence and oppression against minorities in other parts of the world.


Against

Those who opposed removing blasphemy from the constitution included: *
Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI; Irish: ''Ionad Cultúrtha Ioslamach na hÉireann'') is an Islamic complex, including a mosque, in Clonskeagh, Dublin, Ireland. It is funded by the al-Maktoum Foundation of Dubai and has a Sunni or ...
"Religious groups back removal of blasphemy from the Constitution"
. ''
Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...
'', 23 October 2018.
* Senator
Rónán Mullen Rónán Thomas Mullen (born 13 October 1970) is an Irish senator and former delegate to the Council of Europe. He is the leader of the Human Dignity Alliance, an anti-abortion political party formed in 2018. He was elected by the National Univ ...
* Séamas de Barra of Alliance for the Defence of Marriage and the Family *
Colum Kenny Colum Kenny is a journalist, barrister and historian. He is Emeritus Professor at Dublin City University (DCU), in Dublin, Ireland. He was formerly chair of the Masters in Journalism programme at DCU in the School of Communications 1982-2015. K ...
of DCU School of Communications


Opinion and exit polling


Voting

The referendum took place on 26 October 2018, on the same day as the
presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...
. Polling stations were open from 7 am until 10 pm. Turnout was reported to be low in many areas of the country. By midday, turnout percentages from around the country were in the low teens, with many polling stations reporting single figure percentages. In Dublin some estimates suggested that turnout would be half that of the referendum on the
Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (previously bill no. 29 of 2018) is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which permits the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. The constitution had previously prohibited abortio ...
in May.


Analysis

''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
s analysis of its exit poll data said that "younger voters overwhelmingly backed deletion, while older voters were much more evenly split, with 48 per cent voting to retain the constitutional article as it currently stands". RTÉ noted that given that the presidential election had received far more attention, it had been expected that there would be more abstainers than the 1.8% reported in its exit poll data. When analysing the Red C/RTÉ exit poll, RTÉ Religious and Social Affairs Correspondent Joe Little said that older voters were less likely to vote Yes, with over 8 out of 10 voting Yes among those aged under 44, 7 out of 10 among those aged under 45 to 64, and 6 out of 10 among those aged over 65. Support for No also increased in the lower socio-economic groups, with 77% of those in the top ABC1 group voting Yes, 70% of the C2DE group, and 63% of the bottom F group.
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
voters were likeliest to vote Yes, followed by those voting
Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éir ...
,
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...
, Labour, and
Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian ...
. Women and men were equally likely to vote Yes. 80% voted Yes in
County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
, slightly over 70% in
Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...
, and slightly under 70% in the rest of
Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...
, and in
Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...
and the three border counties of
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: si ...
(
Donegal Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...
,
Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...
, and
Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Ireland. It also provides the name of its civil parish and barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7,678. The town is on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Letterk ...
). Only 69% said that "they understood the proposition to abolish the offence in the Constitution" (74% of Yes voters, and 64% of No voters).


References


Sources

* *


Citations


External links


Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill 2018
Oireachtas debates and amendments
Previous Referendums: Referendum on Blasphemy
Referendum Commission {{Amendments of the Constitution of Ireland 37 37 Ireland, 37 Amendment, 37 37 October 2018 events in Ireland Religion in the Republic of Ireland Secularism in Ireland Blasphemy law in Ireland