New study shows Ireland isn’t hateful – so why the hate speech bill?

It’s hard to think of a better example of someone being hoisted on their own petard than the Irish government this week, who published the results of a study which basically confirms that their own proposed hate speech bill is utterly redundant.

This was revealed in spectacular fashion on Thursday when Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman released the findings of a study conducted by Ipsos this year, which showed that Ireland is apparently one of the least hateful countries imaginable. In O’Gorman’s own words, the survey “reflects the welcoming attitude of Irish people towards new communities.”