Ethel mermania wrote:Bananaistan wrote:
Just to be clear. The last prosecution of a case for blasphemy in Ireland was in 1855, and the last successful prosecution in 1852.
This referendum is merely a tidying up of the constitution, similar to the 2001 amendment which banned the use of capital punishment and deleted all references to it from the constitution despite it not having been a thing in law since 1990 and not having been used since 1954. I can confidently predict that this will pass easily and without controversy.
I also note earlier posts referring to Ireland as a catholic country. It is not. The RCC had its chance, Irish people saw just how it used its power and influence, didn't like it, and now no religion will ever return to such a position in Irish society as the RCC had.
I think the referendum is more about the folks who tried to use it against Steven fry, and that made ireland feel shame it was possible. And of course technically speaking Mr. Fry was quite guilty, and should be punished, as it was the law at the time.
Well actually it was agreed to have a referendum in the programme for government which predates the complaint about the Stephen Fry thing. But yeah, the entire basis of that complaint was to embarrass the government into action.