Referendum on the 37th Amendment in Ireland in 2018

On October 26, 2018 , a referendum took place in the Republic of Ireland to abolish the constitutional provision on blasphemy . A majority of 64.85% of the electorate voted for the abolition of the relevant constitutional provision.

background

Constitutional provisions since 1922

After the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, Ireland initially adopted the provisions of the previously applicable Common Law with regard to the criminal liability of the offense of blasphemy . The first Irish constitution of 1921 contained no provisions in this regard. Even before 1922, blasphemy was not a common crime in Ireland. Only three cases had become known since 1700: in 1702 a Unitarian theologian had denied the equality of Jesus Christ and God ; In 1852 a Franciscan publicly burned a Protestant Bible; and in 1854 a clergyman had - probably unintentionally - burned a Bible in addition to offensive writings. When Ireland became a republic in 1937, blasphemy was also included as a provision in the new constitution . There it said:

“Aon ní diamhaslach nó ceannairceach nó graosta a fhoilsiú nó a aithris is cion inphionóis é de réir dlí.
The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offense which shall be punishable in accordance with law. "

"The publication or expression of blasphemous, inflammatory or offensive content is an offense that is punishable by law."

- Irish Constitution, Article 40, Paragraph 6, 1 °

However, no more precise legal provisions followed that would have defined the term blasphemy more sharply. In the more than 50 years that followed, there was not a single case of criminal prosecution for blasphemy as a criminal offense. Under the Defamation Act of 1961, the maximum sentence could be up to two years in prison.

In 1999, the Supreme Court of Ireland was brought before a man who brought a 1995 cartoon against the Sunday Independent during discussions on Ireland's divorce referendum. The Supreme Court concluded that in the absence of statutory law, common law should apply. However, in common law there were only provisions on blasphemy against the Church of England . This revealed that the provision of Article 40 was not practically applicable and the Supreme Court stated that “in the absence of any legislative definition of a constitutional violation in the form of blasphemy, it is impossible to say what the blasphemy offense is ".

Following this finding, the Supreme Court advised the government to “modernize the law on blasphemy so that all faiths are protected”. However, a senator warned that the difficulty in this case was that the offense appeared to be that it injured the believer's feelings, which was "a dangerous basis for an offense." Two constitutional reform commissions in 1991 and 1996 had already recommended the complete removal of the blasphemy passage from the constitution.

2009 Defamation Act

To change the unsatisfactory situation that the constitution made an offense a criminal offense that could not be prosecuted in reality due to a lack of legal provisions, the Irish Parliament, the Oireachtas , decided to incorporate the 2009 Defamation Act , blasphemy as a criminal offense introduced Irish law. This met with clear criticism from many quarters and was characterized by many commentators as out of date and "medieval". Critics emphasized, for example, that Ireland was the only Western country to introduce blasphemy into its criminal code in the 21st century. Ireland is thus on the same level as Sharia states such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan . A referendum on the law originally promised by the government did not take place. Critics also saw in the law a serious restriction on freedom of expression and feared problems for the dialogue between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland . For example, Lord Lester of Herne Hill said in a debate in the English House of Lords on November 5, 2009: "The problem is that what is religion for one person is blasphemy for another". ( “The problem is that one person's religion is another person's blasphemy” ) In the period that followed, there was not a single criminal case based on the 2009 Defamation Act (as of May 9, 2017). After the 2009 Act was passed, Atheist Ireland began a campaign to promote the abolition of the blasphemy constitutional provision and its subsidiary laws. On June 12, 2018, the Irish Minister of Justice announced that the government would hold a referendum to remove the relevant constitutional article.

37. Amendment to the Constitution

The government was preparing a law to amend the constitution (37th Amendment to the Constitution), which was submitted to the electorate for decision in a referendum. The law included the removal of the provisions on the criminality of blasphemy from the constitution. The law provided for the deletion of a single word ( diamhaslach or blasphemous ) from the constitution. The corresponding passage from Article 40 should now read:

“Aon ní ceannairceach nó graosta a fhoilsiú nó a aithris is cion inphionóis é de réir dlí.
The publication or utterance of seditious, or indecent matter is an offense which shall be punishable in accordance with law. "

"The publication or expression of inflammatory or offensive content is an offense that is punishable by law."

- Law on the 37th Amendment to the Constitution

Question of the referendum

The question of the referendum in Irish and English was:

“An bhfuil tú ag toiliú leis an togra chun an Bunreacht a leasú atá sa Bhille thíosluaite?
Do you approve of the proposal to amend the Constitution contained in the undermentioned Bill? "

"Do you agree to the proposal to amend the Constitution as contained in the draft law mentioned below?"

- Question in the Irish referendum on October 28, 2018

The question was to be answered with Tá / Yes or Níl / No.

Attitudes of the parties and social organizations

Among others, the following parties and organizations spoke out in favor of the abolition of the constitutional provision:

• Fine Gael
• Fianna Fáil
• Sinn Féin
• Labor Party
• Green party
• People Before Profit
• Social Democrats
• Irish Council for Civil Liberties
• Church of Ireland
• Atheist Ireland

Neutral

• The Conference of Irish Catholic Bishops called the constitutional provision "obsolete" and indicated that similar laws are being used in other parts of the world to suppress minorities.

On the other hand

Institutions that spoke out against the constitutional amendment were:

• Islamic Cultural Center of Ireland
• Séamas de Barra from the Alliance for the Defense of Marriage and the Family

Results

Results by constituency (percent yes votes)

choice	be right	%
Yes	951,650	64.85
No	515,808	35.15
Valid votes	1,467,458	98.51
Invalid votes	22,236	1.49
Votes cast	1,489,694	43.79
Eligible voters	3,401,652	100

Results by constituency

Constituency	electoral legitimate	Participation (%)	be right		percent
			Yes	No	Yes	No
Carlow – Kilkenny	108,863	45.90%	30,438	18,699	61.95%	38.05%
Cavan-Monaghan	91,692	41.77%	21,045	16,462	56.11%	43.89%
Clare	83,044	50.31%	25,386	15,635	61.89%	38.11%
Cork East	86,180	44.53%	23,751	14,046	62.84%	37.16%
Cork North-Central	84,919	41.55%	22,379	12,452	64.25%	35.75%
Cork North-West	68,820	50.14%	20,086	13,708	59.44%	40.56%
Cork South-Central	88,074	45.87%	27,381	12,588	68.51%	31.49%
Cork South-West	63,897	48.33%	18,800	11,404	62.24%	37.76%
Donegal	119.318	33.68%	20,312	19,108	51.53%	48.47%
Dublin Bay North	114,597	44.56%	36,649	13,930	72.46%	27.54%
Dublin Bay South	80.146	36.69%	22,329	6,866	76.48%	23.52%
Dublin Central	48,588	31.75%	11,359	3,908	74.40%	25.60%
Dublin Fingal	96,612	44.72%	31,645	11,267	73.74%	26.26%
Dublin Mid-West	72.006	40.75%	20,449	8,632	70.32%	29.68%
Dublin North West	62,726	37.99%	16,722	6,907	70.77%	29.23%
Dublin Rathdown	65,918	48.44%	23,510	8,182	74.18%	25.82%
Dublin South-Central	73,567	38.12%	20,214	7,562	72.78%	27.22%
Dublin South West	107.134	42.71%	32,651	12,853	71.75%	28.25%
Dublin West	67,625	42.31%	20,261	8.092	71.46%	28.54%
Dún Laoghaire	96,825	46.88%	33,988	11,095	75.39%	24.61%
Galway East	70,302	48.42%	20,248	12,981	60.93%	39.07%
Galway West	109,523	43.74%	30,917	16,063	65.81%	34.19%
Kerry	111,777	45.12%	28,373	20,873	57.61%	42.39%
Kildare North	86,305	44.13%	27,399	10,284	72.71%	27.29%
Kildare South	63,929	41.06%	17,374	8,510	67.12%	32.88%
Laois	64,139	43.43%	16,314	11,060	59.60%	40.40%
Limerick City	79,647	41.60%	21,702	10,948	66.47%	33.53%
Limerick County	68,740	46.53%	18,450	12,880	58.89%	41.11%
Longford-Westmeath	92.354	41.45%	22,637	15.008	60.13%	39.87%
Louth	110.256	41.28%	29,532	15,451	65.65%	34.35%
Mayo	91,412	45.91%	23.305	17,630	56.93%	43.07%
Meath East	68,591	43.47%	19,671	9,798	66.75%	33.25%
Meath West	66,848	40.61%	16,768	9,988	62.67%	37.33%
Offaly	66.208	45.35%	16,919	12,544	57.42%	42.58%
Roscommon-Galway	64,857	49.20%	17,466	13,709	56.03%	43.97%
Sligo-Leitrim	96,653	43.99%	23,380	18,297	56.10%	43.90%
Tipperary	114,433	48.30%	32.209	21,985	59.43%	40.57%
Waterford	83,359	43.28%	23,517	12,016	66.18%	33.82%
Wexford	111,897	43.92%	31,085	17,315	64.23%	35.77%
Wicklow	99,871	50.68%	35,029	15,072	69.92%	30.08%
total	3,401,652	43.79%	951,650	515,808	64.85%	35.15%

Individual evidence

1. ^ Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) Act, 1922. irishstatutebook.ie, accessed on October 28, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Katherine AE Jacob: Defending Blasphemy: Exploring Religious Expression under Ireland's Blasphemy law . In: Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law . tape 44 , no. 3 , p. 803-845 (English, pdf ).
3. ↑ Bunreacht na hÉireann. irishstatutebook.ie, accessed October 29, 2018 (Irish). Constitution of Ireland. irishstatutebook.ie, accessed October 28, 2018 .  
4. ↑ Defamation Act, 1961. irishstatutebook.ie, accessed on 28 October 2018 (English). 
5. ↑ in the original: " ... in the absence of any legislative definition of the constitutional offense of blasphemy, it is impossible to say of what the offense of blasphemy consists. "
6. ^ Roy Greenslade: Why Ireland must get rid of its disgraceful blasphemy law. The Guardian, April 11, 2016, accessed October 28, 2018 . 
7. ^ Henry McDonald: Ireland's lack of action on blasphemy law disappoints atheists and secularists. The Guardian, December 14, 2014, accessed October 28, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Dáil debates Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Accessed October 28, 2018 . 
9. ^ Minister Flanagan announces Government approval for the holding of a Referendum on the removal of the Offence of blasphemy from the Constitution. Ministry of Justice of Ireland, June 12, 2018, accessed October 28, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of frankness of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill 2018. Website of the Oireachtas, accessed on September 20, 2018 (English). 
11. ↑ Sample voting slip. (pdf) Retrieved October 28, 2018 (English, Interlingue). 
12. ↑ We must vote yes to remove the crime of blasphemy from our Constitution - Flanagan. Fine Gael , October 18, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Religious faiths are strong enough to withstand the removal of Blasphemy law - O'Callaghan. Fianna Fáil , October 19, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Sinn Féin calls for Yes vote in Blasphemy referendum. Sinn Féin , October 20, 2018, accessed on October 24, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Liam van der Spek Welcomes Referendum on Removal of Blasphemy Offence. Labor Party, October 13, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
16. ^ Green call for Yes Vote in Blasphemy Referendum. Green Party, October 19, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
17. ↑ Blasphemy - There Is More To It Than Just A Word. People Before Profit, October 10, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
18. ↑ Social Democrats introduce bills to safeguard freedom of speech by abolishing archaic blasphemy offense. Social Democrats, July 12, 2017, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
19. ↑ ICCL calls for YES vote in Blasphemy Referendum. Irish Council for Civil Liberties, September 27, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
20. ^ Church of Ireland backs removal of blasphemy offense. The Irish Times, October 20, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 . 
21. ^ Atheist Ireland: Referendum on blasphemy about freedom of speech. Irish Examiner, October 30, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 . 
22. ↑ Stephen McNeice: Irish bishops say constitutional article on blasphemy is 'largely obsolete'. Newstalk, October 3, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 . 
23. ^ Conor Gallagher: Constitutional blasphemy clause 'largely obsolete', Bishops decide. The Irish Times, October 3, 2018, accessed October 25, 2018 . 
24. ^ Religious groups back removal of blasphemy from the Constitution. Irish Independent, October 23, 2018, accessed October 28, 2018 .  .
25. ^ Blasphemy, Stephen Fry and referendum in Ireland. BBC News, October 20, 2018, accessed October 28, 2018 . 
26. ^ Watch: Reasons to vote in the blasphemy referendum. RTÉ, October 24, 2018, accessed on October 25, 2018 . 
27. ↑ ^{a b} Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of Offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill 2018. referendum.ie, accessed on October 28, 2018 (English).