The Irish Constitution refers to the common good ten times. By contrast, the freedom of the individual is mentioned only once. During the abortion referendum in 2018, the majority of the political and media establishment made it clear that we were now a country of individual rights and individual choices. No longer did individuals have a responsibility towards the common good, in effect dispensing with the main spirit of the Constitution and in particular Article 41 which sets out the importance of the family to the achievement of the common good.
Within just two years, Ireland had done a complete U-turn. 2020 was the year that Ireland returned to a nation of the common good. The Covid-19 legislation that has being enacted aims to restrict the movements of healthy people in order to safeguard those who are at risk. No longer do individuals have a personal choice to decide what is best for them. The State now decides how individuals should act for the benefit of the common good.
This means that we live in a country with no legal certainty about the direction we are heading in. The constitution is no longer a rudder as was originally intended but a paddle, going different directions depending on which way the wind is blowing.
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