Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland this referendum is equality under the Constitution and anything else is extraneous." However, some religious-affiliated groups were in favour of the referendum. In January 2015, the Church of Ireland LGBT group "Changing Attitude Ireland" welcomed the publication of the wording of the Marriage Equality Referendum. Dr Richard O’Leary, the organisation's chair, said that marriage should be "available to couples without distinction as to their sex", just as civil marriage "may be contracted by two persons without distinction as to their race or religion". On 7 May, at a "Changing Attitude Ireland" event, former Archdeacon of Dublin, Gordon Linney said "We
Blasphemy law in the Republic of Ireland make presentations at the meeting. There were expert presentations from university academics Neville Cox, Eoin O'Dell, and Maeve Cooke; the Knights of Saint Columbanus, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, and an NUIG PhD student argued in favour of retention; while Atheist Ireland, the Humanist Association of Ireland, and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties argued for its removal. Convention members voted 61–38 against retaining the existing Constitutional prohibition of blasphemy; 53–38 in favour of replacing it with a prohibition of "incitement to religious hatred"; and 50–49 against having a statutory prohibition of blasphemy. If a statutory prohibition were used,