Help Needed for Next Phase of Campaign

We have now completed our series of four public meetings (in Waterford, Dublin, Cork and Limerick) and we are moving on to the following four-stranded campaign:

1. Lobbying of politicians, especially members of the Justice Committee
2. Building a broader coalition against the proposed bill
3. Examining legal challenges to the proposed law
4. Continuing with public advocacy including further meetings, gigs etc.

Now that the Lisbon referendum has been announced, we will be seeking to have a referendum to drop the blasphemy reference from the Constutution on the same day (while also arguing that the new law not be enacted in any case).

Your help will be very important in this phase of the campaign. Which if any of the following activities can you help with?

• Meeting politicians by yourself
• Meeting politicians along with other campaign members
• Recruiting other supporters for the campaign
• Joining a committee of people with legal backgrounds
• Writing letters etc to media
• Designing campaign literature
• Helping to organise further public meetings
• Helping to organise a fundraising comedy/music evening
• Contributing finance or helping to fundraise
• Any other suggestions that you wish to make

You are also welcome to attend the AGM of Atheist Ireland from 2-5 pm on Saturday 11 July in Wynns Hotel in Dublin. At this meeting, we will be finalising the detail of the campaign over the summer months. You do not have to be a member of Atheist Ireland to attend this session, but you are welcome to join if you want to. Please let us know if you plan to attend.

With regard to timescale of the campaign, we do not yet know when the Oireachtas All-Party Justice Committee will next debate this issue. When it does so, the Bill will return to the Dail, then go back to the Seanad. The timescale of all of this is up to the Government.

One way or another, the campaign will continue over the summer. If the Bill remains in progress, we will campaign against it being passed. If the Bill is passed, we will campaign for its reversal. If the blasphemy clause is dropped, we will celebrate that, and move on to other aspects of campaigning for an ethical and secular Ireland.

Please let us know know, either here or on the Atheist Ireland website,

• Which of the above areas of activity you can help with?
• Whether you want to attend the Atheist Ireland AGM on 11 July?