manus
The liberty of the Irish people has been eroded over the past forty years, but the institutionalisation of political correctness & particularly the recent civil partnership act have brought erosion of liberty to the brink of tyranny.
Robert Fisk has observed that at the great divide between the east and west is that the institutional west does not believe in God. What we are now seeing in Ireland is a growing intolerance of those who do believe in God, especially intolerance of Christians.
You cannot train to become a GP without getting involved in what for a Christian is immoral sinful procedures. You cannot be a photographer, caterer, registrar, hotelier, etc without risking prosecution if you refuse business involving the endorsement of homosexual behaviour. Under what is called hate-speech legislation similar to our own statutes, people have been arrested and prosecuted in Britain & Scandanavia for simply stating their religious beliefs about sexual morality.
Regardless of what restrictions you wish to place on public servants, (and I would maintain that workers rights to conscienscious objection should be respected unless it refers to something which was in the job description before they accepted the post), interfering in the private sector to this extent is a gross infringement on people´s personal freedoms.
We cannot claim to be a democratic pluralist society if we do not tolerate the right of people to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and association, as well as the right to earn a living.
Robert Fisk has observed that at the great divide between the east and west is that the institutional west does not believe in God. What we are now seeing in Ireland is a growing intolerance of those who do believe in God, especially intolerance of Christians.
You cannot train to become a GP without getting involved in what for a Christian is immoral sinful procedures. You cannot be a photographer, caterer, registrar, hotelier, etc without risking prosecution if you refuse business involving the endorsement of homosexual behaviour. Under what is called hate-speech legislation similar to our own statutes, people have been arrested and prosecuted in Britain & Scandanavia for simply stating their religious beliefs about sexual morality.
Regardless of what restrictions you wish to place on public servants, (and I would maintain that workers rights to conscienscious objection should be respected unless it refers to something which was in the job description before they accepted the post), interfering in the private sector to this extent is a gross infringement on people´s personal freedoms.
We cannot claim to be a democratic pluralist society if we do not tolerate the right of people to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and association, as well as the right to earn a living.
