Ireland to hold referendum on blasphemy

Here's some positive news regarding the blasphemy law passed in Ireland last year – the justice minister Dermot Ahern, who attracted a great deal of criticism for introducing it, has indicated that a referendum will take place later this year on whether to remove it. The referendum would allow Irish voters to choose whether to amend the Republic's constitution to remove a clause proscribing blasphemy. Ahern maintains that he only introduced last year's legislation in order to bring the law in line with this constitutional clause.

Atheist Ireland, which has spearheaded the campaign against the blasphemy law, welcomed the news:

"Atheist Ireland thanks everyone who has helped to make the campaign against this new law as effective as it has been to date. It is now important we maintain the pressure on this issue to ensure that the referendum happens as proposed and, more importantly, that it is won.

We reiterate our position that this law is both silly and dangerous: silly because it is introducing medieval canon law offence into a modern pluralist republic; and dangerous because it incentives religious outrage and because its wording has already been adopted by Islamic States as part of their campaign to make blasphemy a crime internationally."

If it goes ahead, the referendum will take place in the autumn, alongside another planned referendum on children's rights.