ABSTRACT
Article 44.1 of the Constitution provides: ‘The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.’ At the time of the enactment of the Constitution, it was beyond argument that the general understanding of ‘religion’ was very much influenced by the principles of Christianity. In particular, the guiding values of the new post-Independence Irish State overlapped and were then analagous with the predominant Christian denomination, Roman Catholicism. However, when enacted, the Constitution also recognised all of the other major Christian faiths of Ireland. Moreover, the Constitution also expressly ensured full constitutional protection to our Jewish congregations, at the very time when continental Europe was sliding towards the Holocaust. Therefore, in its decision of Quinn’s Supermarket Ltd v Attorney General [1972] IR 1, the Supreme Court confirmed that the concept of ‘religion’ in the Constitution was by no means limited to Christianity. In particular, Mr Justice Walsh held that ‘[Article 44.1] acknowledges that public worship is due to Almighty God but it does so in terms which do not confine the benefit of that acknowledgment to members of the Christian faith’. However, does the Constitution protect those who hold and practice polytheistic or non-theistic spiritual beliefs? This remains unclear and a matter
upon which the Supreme Court has yet to conclusively pronounce. Can it scarcely be contended that constitutional protection could be denied to those members of society whose faith or belief system does not fit easily into the established order of one ‘Almighty God’? The Report of the Oireachtas Constitution Review Group (1996, Pn 2632) dealt with this point. The Group noted that the above language of Art 44.1 was ‘obscure and imprecise in its legal significance’. The majority of the Group therefore called either for the deletion of the Article altogether or that it be amended to simply provide: ‘The State guarantees to respect religion.’
