'Any age will be controversial' in homosexuality vote [Ireland, 1993]

RTÉ News ^ | Wednesday, 27 Dec 2023 00:00 | David McCullagh and Shane McElhatton

[Olog-hai]

In the summer of 1993, minister for justice Maire Geoghegan-Quinn had no option but to change the law on homosexuality.

In the 1988 Norris case, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that existing laws which criminalized sex between adult males in private contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe was looking for the law to be changed, and a refusal to do so could potentially lead to Ireland’s expulsion from that body. […]

So, the law had to be changed. But how it would be changed, and what the age of consent for homosexual activity would be, were still open questions. […]

Campaigners for decriminalization wanted 17, while 21 was seen as “probably the age most acceptable to those who do not want decriminalization but recognize that there is no choice”.

In the end the Minister, and the Government, opted for equality, setting the age of consent at 17, the same age as applied to heterosexual relations. …

[Olog-hai]

So they claim the EUSSR bullied them into decriminalizing sodomy back in 1993, citing the decision of the so-called human rights court and the threat of being thrown out of the Council of Europe.

[Sacajaweau]

I believe the UN was the first to say....age 14 as the line.

[Clutch Martin]

“I believe the UN was the first to say....age 14 as the line.”

IIRC West Virginia allowed marriage at age 12, I do not know if that is still on the books though.

[\/\/ayne]

Ireland’s rulers sent them a Directive.