Can we take on dated blasphemy laws, please?

The Constitutional Commissioners (or whoever, in their spare time, thought up the Age of Eligibility for Election to the Office of President Bill, 2015) must have little to occupy their time.

Who needed, who asked, for such a thing?

If an amendment to the Constitution was contemplated, why not be rid of ‘blasphemy’?

It has outlived its use (if ever it had one) and, as the Charlie Hebdo newspaper killings proved, it has the potential to draw Ireland into arguments in which we, as a nation, have no interest.

Worse, by having this ugly thing, ‘blasphemy’, enshrined in the Constitution, we align ourselves with the most reactionary, dictatorial and religiously-repressive regimes in the world.

As a country that portrays itself as modern, tech-savvy, job-hungry, etc, we hardly need that questionable image.

Yet, we hold a referendum about something that doesn’t matter.

It’s obviously an Irish thing — silliness.

Eddie Lenihan

Crusheen,

Co. Clare