Ted writers protest blasphemy law

Father Ted creators Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan are backing a protest against planned new anti-blasphemy laws in Ireland.

Changes to the Defamation Act this week will mean a maximum €25,000 fine for anyone deemed to have committed blasphemy in a move that has been condemned as ‘a return to the Middle Ages’.

Linehan, pictured, said the law was part of a trend where freedom of expression was being attacked ‘to placate the craziest people on earth’.

He told the Observer: ‘This is insanity. After all, there are things contained in the holy books of one religion that are blasphemy to another religion. The logic behind this comes from Alice in Wonderland.’

He added that under the new bill, certain scenes from Father Ted could be deemed blasphemous – even though the sitcom mainly steered clear of mocking beliefs.

‘Writers should not be looking over their shoulders,’ he said. ‘If you are writing a satire today, the Irish government are making it harder to do that.‘

But Mathews said: ‘It's a pity that law hadn't been introduced when we were writing Father Ted, because it would have given us a great storyline. The best attitude to this nonsense is to laugh at it and send it up.’

Pressure group Atheist Ireland plans to publish a statement blaspheming all the major religions in a calculated challenge to the law.

Supporters of the law point out that Ireland has a constitutional to make blasphemy – which can only be overturned by a referendum.

Article 40 of the Irish Constitution – drawn up in 1937 – states that ‘the publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter’ is a criminal offence.

Although some politicians are calling for such a referendum, justice minister Dermot Ahern opposes the idea.

Published: 5 Jul 2009