From the Irish Times, Wed 11 November 1992

[Taoiseach = Prime Minister.  Typos are mine!]

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Delay in altering gay law criticised

by Sean Flynn in Brussels, and Dermot Kelly

THE Governmrnt has been given a further six months by the Council 
of Europe to decriminalise homosexuality, even though it is now some 
four years since Ireland was found to b in breach of the European 
Convention on Human Rights.

In Strasbourg yesterday, Ireland was asked again to explain its 
continued failure to comply with the 1988 judgement in the case 
brought by Senator David Norris.

Mr Lima Rigney, Irelands's ambassador to the  27-nation council,
said that the government had been unable to proceed with homosexual 
law reform because of its heavy workload in the family law area. He
said that the referendums on abortion and the preparation of the White 
Paper on divorce meant that it was not possible to address the 
homosexuality issue.

In view of the forthcoming election, Mr RIgney asked that the 
Government be given a further six months to comply with the ruling and 
this was agreed.

Mr Kieran Rose, of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), last 
night criticised the Government's decision to plead for more time. It 
was a simple change in the law on which a memo to Govenment had been 
prepared already. The Government was bound to bring it in. All it needed 
was a government decision. GLEN regarded the court's ruling yesterday as 
a clear instruction that a change in the law must be brought in within 
the next six months.

Last May, Mr Rigney, who has taken instructions from the Department of 
Justice, told the council that Ireland intended to bring amending 
legislation on homosexuality before the end of the year.

Subsequently, the Taoiseach, Mr Reynolds, deliberately distanced himself 
from any commitment by saying that homosexual law reform was not a 
legislative priority for the Government.

While the council is known to be greatly disturbed by Ireland's flagrant 
breach of the Convention, there is very little that it can do about it. 
The council has no real sanction available to it, apart from expelling 
the Republic from its memebrship. But this step would only be contemplated 
in very extreme cases.

The European Court of Human Rights is the guardian of the European 
Convention on Human Rights. In the Norris case, Ireland's ban on 
consensual homosexual acts was found to be repugnant to article 8 of the
Convention which states that "every citizen has the right to respect for 
his private life".

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And, an interesting side note, the election referred to above will be held 
in two weeks time on Nov 25.  The largest party in the Dail is Fianna Fail 
and their leader is the current Taoiseach referred to in the article. One 
of the candidates for Fianna Fail is gay, though not `generally' known to 
be so. If he is elected, some of us will be watching his performance when 
the legislation comes before the house. Looks like we could have that 
`outing' debate here afterall.

Cathal


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|     Cathal Kelly                             
|     Ollscoil Luimnigh (Uni. Limerick),    For the benefit of 
|     National Technological Park,          the non-Irish the
| IRL Limerick                              't' in 'Cathal' is       |
|                                           silent and the name      |
      (Ireland)                             is attached to the       |
                                            male of the species.     |
      kellyc@ul.ie                                                   | 
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