Stephen Fry
Well.
Further to the Stephen Fry blasphemy law brouhaha…
Liam Stack and Ed O’Loughlin, in the New York Times, report:
The Catholic Church has had profound cultural and political influence in Ireland, but adherence to its teachings has been waning in recent years. There are several continuing controversies in Ireland over the role of religion in public life, Mr. [Eoin Daly, law lecturer at NUI Galway] Daly noted, and Mr. Fry’s brush with the blasphemy law is probably the least urgent.
Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2015. Since then, it has been locked in a tense debate over abortion, which was banned in almost all cases by a 1982 referendum. Activists say thousands of Irish women leave the country for abortions each year.
The country has also experienced a string of scandals related to the Catholic Church’s role in managing public services, including the discovery of a mass grave on the site of a former publicly financed home for unwed mothers run by a religious order, the Sisters of Bon Secours.
“There has been a huge transformation of public opinion away from the orthodox Catholic positions over the last quarter of a century, but you still have significant church involvement in public services, especially education,” Mr. Daly said.
“You could say the church has an outsized institutional role, considering the public opinion, values and beliefs in society.”
Groan.
Irish Police Investigate (but Don’t Charge) Stephen Fry for Blasphemy (New York Times)
Previously: ‘We Believed That We Would Never See A Prosecution For It’
Morto for us. makes us look so provincial.
@Starina, more like Parochial…
something with a P anyway
Pedophilia
There’s no need to go overboard. I thought the NYT article gives a pretty fair account of the whole thing
Other countries with anti-blasphemy laws include Denmark, Finland, Germany and Italy.
The Dutch abolished theirs in 2014.
yeah was a good article, didn’t state or imply Ireland was a backwards country, quite the opposite
I’m not criticising the article; I’m criticising the law and the whole incident.
and you’d be right :-)
Backpedaling
I don’t think we need be embarrassed about what Americans think. They elected Trump.
In any case, the FAILING New York Times is all FAKE NEWS!
and Bush. Twice!
Once
You thrive on mortification starina. You love it. It suits you.
‘… orthodox Catholic positions…’
Would that be the Missionary?
only with the use of beads…. rosary beads….
So many people don’t seem to understand what blasphemy actually is…..
http://www.dailyedge.ie/irish-blasphemy-laws-3380732-May2017/
does being asked for your opinion on god on a tv show really count as blasphemy?
i did enjoy the ‘moosifer’ one :)
Not the only country with a blasphemy law in Western Europe, probably going to be the next one to be rid of it. This is an unfortunate byproduct of having a constitution which is owned by the people. The law at present is necessary and correct, and will be until the referendum does away with this nonsense.
It took 21 years to create laws for the 8th amendment (Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013). Why wasn’t this done sooner?
And if they *really* needed to legislate for Blasphemy the maximum fine could have been set at €25 instead of €25,000.
A low fine might result in actual convictions though. Convictions which could affect travel, etc.
The huge penalty is another method to make convictions much less likely.
Ye all ticked catholic in the census. Just in case ye needed a kid in the local catholic school. Ireland is tucked well under the popes dress. And will be for a few centuries to come.
+1. It’s hard to understand after years, and years of the worst type of scandals imaginable. They say faith is seperate from the church – it’s the bloody church that invented this thing you have faith in..they are the agents of this unseen, but, all-seeing creator of the universe, that, incidentally, needs statutory protection from possible offense on an island, off another island off the edge of a continent on a plant, of which there are billions..ffs.
+78%
Its worse than that . You don’t need to baptize your kid to get them into a catholic school. In Dublin, parents baptize their kids because they are religious or one partner is religious and the other (usually the man) goes along because he doesn’t want the headache and/or is afraid of pissing off the grandparents and being written out of the will , and use the school excuse when they get embarrassed talking to enlightened non-religious people. Outside of Dublin you have to baptize your kids simply because you will be a social pariah otherwise. The culchie college kids, despite all their lefty student union talk , come home on the weekends and go to mass otherwise they will be the talk of the town. Imagine what would happen if they had a child out of wedlock AND didn’t get them baptized?
Seem s like a fair enough article to me. What’s with the “groan”?
I’m just going to report Stephen Fry for assisting an abortion if that’s what it takes to get religious authoritarianism off our statute books.
Article seemed bang on the money to me, speaking of which “In God we trust” eh Yanks?
God is not great
a fantastic read and also full free audio book on utube
Christopher Hitchens
https://youtu.be/uwGYl-mIbb0
Does anyone know where Clampers is? I’m starting to get a little worried
He’s outside.
He went missing before but we found him – don’t worry ;)
There is a strange obsession with being ashamed here. The way people jump at the chance for self loathing and the glee they show when something bad happens in Ireland with “only in Ireland etc” indicates something quite sick in them selves. As someone who regularly travels the world and sees actual crapness and incredible suffering, I must say the only thing I am ashamed of is the self entitlement, bitterness and narrow mindedness of many of my compatriots. Much much worse than nuns. Get some perspective peeps.