If you are Irish, or living in Ireland, a new website has been set up to campaign against the regressive anti-blasphemy legislation proposed by Dermot Ahern.

The site is well worth a visit and includes a wealth of background material, including a history of Irish Blasphemy Law that brings us right up to the current situation:

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice is currently discussing the Defamation Bill 2006. The purpose of this Bill is to “revise in part the law of defamation and to replace the Defamation Act 1961 with modern updated provisions taking into account the jurisprudence of our courts and the European Court of Human Rights”. The 1961 Act includes the offence of blasphemy, as quoted above. The Minister for Justice is proposing to replace this reference with a new proposed offence, stating: “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.”