MORE bad news for the Catholic Church in Ireland, which has suffered a number of setbacks in this increasingly sceptical country: the offence of blasphemy is likely to be dropped from the Irish Constitution.

According to the Irish Independent, the joint committee on the Constitution said last Friday that changes to the Constitution in the areas of freedom of expression and blasphemy are required, and should be voted on in a future referendum.

Committee chairman, Sean Ardagh, said the Constitution should be amended along the lines of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights in order to ensure greater emphasis on the freedom of speech.

Said Ardagh:

The committee is of the view that amendment is not immediately necessary but recommends that change be made when an appropriate opportunity presents.

He added that changes could be made alongside another referendum vote. However, he stressed there was no urgent requirement to make the changes.

A constitutional reference, which deems the publication or utterance of “blasphemous, seditious or indecent matters” as an offence punishable in accordance with the law, should also be deleted, according to the report.

However, the committee noted that recent incidents highlighted that religious offence is still something which can cause genuine distress. It cited the performance of Tommy Tiernan on the ‘Late Late Show’ and his now infamous ‘Lamb of God’ routine in which Tiernan joked, in typically surreal style, that the Lamb of God was an actual lamb bounding around a field full of his own self-importance because he was chosen by God.

Tiernan remembers it vividly:

The front page of the Evening Herald in Dublin had a headline that the show was going to be sued for blasphemy — it was great.

The committee also referred to accusations of blasphemy directed at Jerry Springer: the Opera in in the UK, and the publication of controversial cartoons in Denmark.

Notwithstanding this, it is the committee’s view that the specific reference to blasphemy should be deleted from the Constitution.

Meanwhile, New Zealand rationalists are urging the Government to follow Britain’s example and take blasphemy off the law books.

The New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists says the charge gives religious doctrine special protection that other ideas and beliefs do not have.

The group says the crime is a threat to freedom of speech.