Acting on Conscience

On Thursday, our glorious legislators finally passed the Civil Partership Bill, something that they have been threatening to do since the Dead Sea was only sick. The rights (or lack of) and wrongs of the Bill have been discussed by others in other fora, prior to this, and I'm not going to launch into a few blown Pro or Anti Treaty debate right now; that's not for here, as Marjorie Dawes would say.

However, I find it interesting that the aul' bigots (20 or so - which out of a country of 4 million people, is a good showing) spoke out to say that the new law would actually criminalize registrars who fail to conduct the ceremony. The particularly sad individual pictured is a man called Sean Burke, from Mayo. My nanna is from Mayo. She has always maintained that "the best people are from Mayo". In this case, I think she'd be ashamed of her fellow countyman.

Seán travelled from Mayo with his wife and five of his 10 children in protest. He is outraged at the Dáil for “they’re giving legal sanction to something God has forbidden,” Funnily enough I thought that the remit of Dáil Éireann was to represent and legislate in the interests of the citizens of the Irish Republic, not pander to the whims of a divine being that may or may not exist. However, I desist. Interestingly he picks up on the penalties that will be imposed for failure to comply with the legislation. “Also, it’s making people who disagree criminals . . . a registrar would be fined €2,000 or jailed for six months if they refuse, even on conscience, to do something that they believe is wrong.”

This is quite interesting. The way that I look at it, there are plenty of people who get married who probably shouldn't get married. I'm sure that every country registrar, from Borris to Ballina, has come across couples where he or she goes "Oh oh, that's not a good idea." However, the registrar is not there to advise, or to pass judgement, or to sanctify who is or is not worthy to marry whom. They are simply there to provide a civil service. They are public servants, serving in this case as an invigilator to make sure that the ceremony is carried out according to the law. You can be damned sure that they judge each and every couple that come before them; consider it a perk of the job! I'm sure plenty of them officiate over a marriage that they personally believe is wrong, for various reasons (rarely religious, one would think), however we do not pay them to for their opinions. Their opinions and their values are their own, but the service that they provide belongs to us.