Is Ireland losing the Battle for Free Speech? – by Carl Duffy

In 2020, Helen McEntee received 7,691 first-preference votes in her Meath-East

constituency. A couple of years later she published a bill which attempted to suppress certain forms of

speech that the Government deemed ’hateful’.

Initially, this bill would’ve permitted An Garda Síochána to enter people’s homes and

search their devices for ‘offensive’ content.

Despite this draconian bill attacking our most fundamental freedoms, its architects and

supporters went largely unpunished in the subsequent election.

In fact, Helen McEntee got over two-thousand additional votes in last year’s election. The

Irish electorate rewards those who try to silence us.

Recently, the British Government went after the band ‘Kneecap’ for language they

considered dangerous. Suddenly, many who were silent about previous attacks on Freedom of Speech became vocal in their defence of this Irish hip-hop trio. Dishearteningly and despite being victims of

censorship themselves, the band alongside many others such as Christy Moore, Chris

O’Dowd and The Mary Wollopers petitioned a County Leitrim venue from hosting those

with opposing political views to their own.

We live in a deeply divided society, those of us in the North experience this acutely. This is

fine. While divisions over the constitutional question or the economy are one thing, taking

a partisan approach to free speech is quite another.

The degree of tolerance towards different political views is a measure of how strong our

democracy is. By this metric-Ireland and the West in general-are in clear decline.

The U.S. Government will ostensibly defend their first amendment until protestors criticise

Israel.

Keir Starmer will insist the U.K. has free speech, as Lucy Connolly simultaneously remains

behind bars for wrong speech.

Kneecap will defend against censorship when they’re targeted but won’t do the same for

the likes of John Waters.

The beauty of holding dear to the principle of free speech is that it allows one to transcend

all other political divisions.

In Skokie, Illinois in the year 1977, a group of neo-Nazis organised a demonstration. The

ACLU – with holocaust survivors amongst their members – defended their right to march on

free speech grounds.

I would posit that these defenders of liberty were sharply aware of the dangers of state-

sanctioned speech suppression. Perhaps, the restriction of free expression was more

frightening than the promotion of an ideology which sought to eradicate the Jewish people.

When fellow Republicans – who have also suffered suppression from the state – employ the

same censorious tactics towards others I despair.

The majority of Sinn Féin TDs initially supported McEntee’s authoritarian piece of

legislation

We are in dark territory if our culture doesn’t recognise that our democracy – and in turn the

means of discussing all relevant issues – is dependent on free speech, which facilitates the

exchange of ideas. Without this, we are no longer critical thinkers and instead more of us

will morph into brain-dead ideologues completely hostile towards any dissent.