Shhhhh.

As far as I know, no-one has been charged yet with the new Irish Blasphemy law that came in during July of this year. Yea you read right BLASPHEMY LAW. Crazy, eh?

And what’s even more crazy, and sad, is that this law was forced into existence just after the major child abuse scandal in Ireland concerning the Catholic Priests and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church here. Go figure.

Here is a excerpt of the new law:

Section 36
(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000. [Amended to €25,000]

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if (a) he or she publishes or utters 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, and (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.

Section 37
(1) Where a person is convicted of an offence under section 36, the court may issue a warrant (a) authorizing any member of the Garda Siochana [police] to enter (if necessary by the use of reasonable force) at all reasonable times any premises (including a dwelling) at which he or she has reasonable grounds for believing that copies of the statement to which the offence related are to be found, and to search those premises and seize and remove all copies of the statement found therein, (b) directing the seizure and removal by any member of the Garda Siochana of all copies of the statement to which the offence related that are in the possession of any person, specifying the manner in which copies so seized and removed shall be detained and stored by the Garda Siochana.

Emily and I thought that the customer service was ridiculous until will read about this.

Live free,

N

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Tagged as: abuse, scandal