page_title: Blasphemy law
section_title: Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: Blasphemy law / By country / Historically Christian countries / Ireland
caption_attribution_description: English: Fry at Winfield House, June 2016
context_page_description: A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, where blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred things, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Research Center, about a quarter of the world's countries and territories had anti-blasphemy laws or policies as of 2014.
  Blasphemy laws are commonly used around the world to persecute people for beliefs and activities that do not conform to the majority opinion on religious and sensitive topics, and to suppress criticism of religion. They have been subject to repeated condemnations by human rights organisations and resolutions of the United Nations Human Rights Council. In some parts of the world, blasphemy laws on statute books have not been enforced for many years, but a concerted international campaign since 2015 has sought to repeal these laws in with the hope of further drawing attention to the way these laws are used around the world to persecute religious and political minorities.
context_section_description: In Ireland, blasphemy against any form of religion was prohibited by the 2009 Defamation Act until its repeal on 17 January 2020. Blasphemy against Christianity was prohibited by the constitution and carried a maximum fine of €25,000; however, the offence of blasphemous libel, last prosecuted in 1855 in connection to an alleged Bible-burning, was ruled in 1999 to be incompatible with the Constitution's guarantee of religious equality. A controversial law was passed on 9 July 2009 and went into effect on 1 January 2010. The law prohibited publishing or uttering "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".
  The Irish Constitutional Convention in 2013 recommended, and the Government endorsed, the repeal of the constitutional prohibition on blasphemy (Article 40.6.1.i.), but the Taoiseach indicated to postpone the issue. Suggestions in 2014 to hold a referendum on the matter have so far not materialized. Calls for repeal resurged after the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.
  The law had not been invoked until in February 2015 English comedian Stephen Fry, when asked during an RTÉ programme what he might say to God at the gates of heaven, responded, without specifying any religion,
  "I'd say: 'Bone cancer in children, what's that about? How dare you? How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It's not right. 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?' That's what I'd say (...) the god who created this universe, if it was created by a god, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish (...)"
  An allegation of blasphemy was made to police at the time, and in 2017 police contacted Fry to inform him that the incident was being investigated. News of the investigation caused a big stir, but a few days later it was reported that the police, the Garda Síochána, had dropped the case as there was no injured party. The Garda Síochána could not find enough people outraged over the actor's anti-God remarks. One individual complaint alone cannot result in a prosecution under the legislation and only one viewer made a formal complaint against Fry's comments. The complainant said that he was not personally offended by the programme but simply believed that the comments made by Fry on RTÉ were criminal blasphemy and that he was doing his civic duty by reporting a crime.
  In June 2018, the Irish government agreed to a referendum to remove the offense of blasphemy from the Constitution. The referendum, which took place on 26 October 2018, abolished the constitutional ban on blasphemy by a margin of 64.85% to 35.15%. Until the offence was repealed by the Minister of Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan in January 2020, blasphemy was prohibited by sections 36 and 37 of the Defamation Act 2009, for which offenders could face a fine of up to €25,000.
caption: Stephen Fry in June 2016
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