Barry Ward: None of us is in any doubt about what ‘hate’ means

New legislation will proportionately balance the rights of ordinary people to enjoy their place in our community with the rights of others to freely express their views and opinions, writes Barry Ward

People will be able to continue to be offensive, and offended, as they were before. However, when free speech is abused and calculated to cause hatred or incite violence against members of a group, it is right that we draw a line in the sand.

Theodore Roosevelt said “no law could ever be framed to make a fool wise or a weakling strong or a coward brave”. By the same token, no law can make the unkind kind, or the hateful loving, but the fact that we cannot legislate for what people think or how they feel does not mean that we should not regulate behaviour where it negatively impacts on other citizens.

New legislation attempts to do that and has been the subject of criticism this week as it came before the Seanad.