John Waters - "Ireland and the End of Debate"

Speech given by John Waters to the Iona Institute in June 2016. His topic was ‘Ireland and the End of Debate’.

In a wide-ranging address he described how the range of acceptable opinion in Ireland has become narrower and narrower over time.

He said that rather than helping to open up debate, the media have largely been complicit in narrowing the terms of debates often through allowing voices that dissent from the secular, liberal consensus to be demonised. He said the 2015 gay marriage debate very much illustrated that.