I write this week’s roundup having just returned home from an engaging – and at times heated – debate over the Government’s moribund Hate Speech Bill, ably hosted by the DCU School of Communications. The undoubted star of the show: Fine Gael Senator Barry Ward, who used all of his skill as a barrister to fend off criticisms from Peadar Toibin and myself. Ward is an exceptionally able debater, in a parliamentary party not full of them. That said, his tactics were interesting: On the one hand, presenting the hate speech bill as a natural evolution of existing law that would provide important new protections to minorities and punish real extremists for inciting violence and hatred, and, on the other hand, waving away the idea that most potential hate speech would be hate speech at all. I felt it was a little bit cynical, while being extremely effective.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t help get the feeling that the heat – and life – has largely gone out of the Hate Speech Bill. More than one person in a position to be informed about such matters tells me that it is functionally, if not officially, dead, and that Simon Harris will be in absolutely no rush to breathe life back into it. For what it’s worth, I think FGers are missing a trick by just letting it quietly die: They’d get much more traction from officially pronouncing it dead, and holding some funeral rites. It would go a way towards signalling that the Harris era will be different, if there’s anyone open to believing that.
This article is premium content
Get unlimited access to Gript
Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience
Subscribe
Already a member? Sign in here