Ireland
The age of consent in Ireland is 17, and the law does not make exceptions for being close in age or for marriage. {ยง 2.1} of the Irish Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935 states "Any person who unlawfully and carnally knows any girl who is of or over the age of fifteen years and under the age of seventeen years shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable, in the case of a first conviction of such misdemeanour, to penal servitude for any term not exceeding five years nor less than three years or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years or, in the case of a second or any subsequent conviction of such misdemeanour, to any term of penal servitude not exceeding ten years nor less than three years or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years." As previously stated, sex with a minor over the age of 15 is a misdemeanor and carries a lower sentence than that for when the minor is below 15, which is a felony, although the punishments were raised in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 from a misdemeanor with two years in prison to one with five years in prison. If the victim is below the age of 15 the penalty can be life imprisonment, and consent by the victim is not a defense. Irish law allows a defense to prosecution if a perpetrator honestly believed his victim was over 17 or over 15 in cases of either charges being brought against him. Section 5 of the Criminal Law Sexual Offenses Act 2006 states that Irish female minors under the age of 17 cannot be guilty of any sexual offense, but no such provision exists protecting male minors under 17 years.
Read more about this topic: Ages Of Consent In Europe
Famous quotes containing the word ireland:
“They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.”
—Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)
“No people can more exactly interpret the inmost meaning of the present situation in Ireland than the American Negro. The scheme is simple. You knock a man down and then have him arrested for assault. You kill a man and then hang the corpse.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)