Irish media - Attempts to silence dissent and those who are LGB

FORMER Attorney General Michael McDowell has written to Justice Minister Simon Harris raising queries about the inclusion of “transgender” as a gender in new hate speech laws.

Social media has given us all a voice. It has made it possible and fast for anyone to reach an audience and spread a message, no matter how niche or weird or crazy.

The most striking thing about the transgender prisoner situation in Ireland is the silence that surrounds the issue. Most people are unaware that there are male-born prisoners housed in the women’s…

A new Bill will create, for the first time in Ireland, specific hate crime offences

Headlines incorrectly framing court cases could play into the hands of extremist groups which seek to stir up outrage and thereby promote their fringe views

Aoife Gallagher argues that anti-trans campaigners do not have science on their side no matter how hard they try.

I’ve been musing a lot lately on the conflict between safety and freedom. Apparently, the majority of us crave safety — with only a minority prizing freedom above it. That makes sense from a herd point of view. The species’ main drive is to survive, and if we all went off cliff-diving an…

Enoch Burke sat in the front row of Court 1, where senior barristers usually sit, looking down and clasping his hands.

A secondary school has secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing a teacher who opposes addressing a student with the pronoun "they" from either attending at its premises or from teaching any classes at the school while he remains suspended from his position.

Ireland is not immune to racism or bigotry but the GPAHE report is inflating niche groups well above their true stature

Cast your mind back to the presidential election campaign of 2018 when one of the candidates, Peter Casey, made remarks about Travellers that provoked huge cont

The coalition now known as Trans Equality Together launched last Monday with the stated aim of ensuring “trans and non-binary people are equal, safe and valued”.

Coalition of groups launched at Dublin’s Mansion House to support transgender and non-binary people in Ireland

Are we heading towards a society in which debate is dying and contentious opinions are being supp...

Increasingly, a fractured political and social landscape is leading to the souring of debate.

Stella O’Malley, a psychotherapist, wants the record of the Dail corrected after she claims she was misquoted and her attitude on transgender people misreprese

The Union of Students in Ireland is refusing to speak to The Irish Times following an article published on August 9 last year

Almost 350 reports of alleged hate crime were logged through the garda force’s new online platform, but the vast majority were recorded as another incident typ

Met Office National Forecast for the week ahead

Justice Minister Helen McEntee secured cabinet approval on Tuesday to seek the backing of TDs and senators for an initiative designed to make hate crimes and hate speech a punishable offence at EU level. There is nothing wrong with that, its tempting to say. Hate speech and hate crime are reprehensi…

A Fine Gael senator has said it is disappointing that a rally organised by the National Women’s Council ahead of International Women’s Day has excluded speakers from women of the Green Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Minister says it is ‘regrettable’ no female Government TD or Senator had been invited to speak at the rally on women’s equality

It’s hard to take the game seriously now that it’s renaming itself over JK Rowling’s views

The paper of record has come under fire after publishing a controversial op-ed which expressed issues with forthcoming legislation to ban conversion therapy in Ireland

For most of human history, there have been attempts to control which ideas can be expressed in public. Invariably, such repression has been presented as being for the public good.

A hate crime portal started by the garda force in July has received 157 reports in its first three months of operation. Seventy-three of these were actionable,

Three street preachers from Northern Ireland have been arrested in Dundalk after preaching against homosexuality and are due to appear at the town’s district court on public order offences.

The BAI said the broadcast of this statement without challenge was “not fair”.

Minister McEntee said the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and of association will be respected in the new legislation.

Harry Potter author was referred to as a ‘bigot’ during segment of show on Today FM

Tough new sentences for hate crimes are to be introduced by Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

Inciting hatred on social media could carry prison sentence of up to six months

A Sinn Féin TD has apologised for liking tweets which transgender rights campaigners have said are "transphobic".

The National Women’s Council (NWC) has been criticised for signing a letter exhorting politicians and the media not to give a platform to “pseudo feminists” on transgender issues. The letter

We, a group of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men, were proud to found the LGB Alliance, Ireland, last month. Imagine our surprise, then, to read Emma Kelly’s article expounding we were a transphobic hate group. We are writing this to ask a simple question; why is it so awful to come together to …