Tlie European Legacy, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 41-54, 2005

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Religion, Politics and Socio-Cultural Change in Twentieth-Century Ireland -^s-

LOUISE FULLER --=-

Ttie Catholic Ctturch assumed vast power and influence in earty twentiettt century Iretand based on potitical, sociat and retigious developments in the course of the nineteenth century. Ttie first Iristi governments under Costello and de Valera were deferential in relation to the power and place of ttie Cattiotic Churcti in Irish tife. Ttie 1950s represented the final ptiase of the dominance of ttie Catholic Church. Since then, a wide variety of influences from emigration to ttie mass media to issues retated tofamity ptanning tiave undermined the social framework ofChurctt dominance in Irish tife. By tiightighting the ideas and arguments of priests and pretates, this articte summarizes the remarkabte changes that have come to Iretand undermining the status and privitege of ttie Church in Iristi politics and society. ABSTRACT

By the time of Irish independence in 1922 the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland had been consolidated over the previous hundred years. In the nineteenth century the Catholic Church placed its resources and organizational ability at the disposal of Charles Stewart Pamell and Daniel O'Connell before him, and in so doing, had become a powerful political force destined to wield extraordinary influence in the new Irish state. By virtue of its investment in education, health and social welfare provision the Church managed, in Emmet Larkin's phrase, "to build itself into the very vitals of the nation." In the nineteenth century the Catholic laity were socialized into a strong religious belief, practice and moral order, which provided an all-encompassing defmition of reality. This continued into the twentieth century, and the Church's position was consolidated in the period after independence. W. T. Cosgrave and Eamon de Valera later ensured that the Catholic moral code was upheld by legislation. The high point was de Valera's 1937 constitution which recognized the "special position" of the Catholic Church, which he justified in the Dail on the basis that "93% of the people of this part of Ireland ... belong to the Catholic Church." When the Inter-Party govemment came to power in February 1948, the Taoiseach John A. Costello sent a message to Pope Pius XII assuring him in the name of his cabinet colleagues of their "filial loyalty" and their "finn resolve to be guided in all [their] work by the teaching of Christ and to strive for the attainment of a social order based on Christian principles."

Department of Modern History, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Email: Ionise.fiiller@ niay.ie ISSN 1084-8770 print/ISSN 1470-1316 online/()5/01004l-l4 © 2005 International Society for the Study of European Ideas DOI: 10.1080/1084877052000321976

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Against this background it is perhaps not surprising that on 10 April 1951, a letter was received by the Secretary of the Congress of Irish Unions from Monsignor Montini, Substitute Papal Secretary of State and future Pope Paul VI, acknowledging the address of homage and chasuble presented to Pope Pius XII during the Holy Year in the name of the workers of Ireland. The letter, as recorded in the Irish Catholic Directory in 1952, read as follows: Ac a time when so many of the workers of various countries have fallen prey to false theories and ideologies that are in direct contrast to the Christian religion, it was a source of particular gratification to His Holiness to receive this further proof of the devoted attachment of the workers of Ireland to the Vicar of Christ, and to their fidelity to the Catholic Faith, which is their nation's most precious heritage." This was the impression of Ireland held in Rome in the early 1950s—of a country which had preserved a purity of faith in the face of persecution and famine, a country loyal to Rome, in which the combined might of the apparatus of Church and State was exercised in keeping at bay the kind of modem influences, which were perceived as undennining the Christian heritage. Irish prelates felt that they were indeed lucky and had good reason to be proud and they were the envy of their European counterparts. Ireland was an oasis of the faith which had to be preserved at all costs from corrupt influences. It is unlikely that many would have questioned Dr James Devane's opinion when he described Ireland "as the most Catholic country in the world."' Writing in the Irish Rosary in 1952 he observed, "[p|erhaps the Republic of Ireland, as it is constituted today, is the only integral Catholic state in the world; a Catholic culture as it existed in the Middle Ages." Fr Edward Long assessing Irish piety in 1950, observed that the "faith and piety of our people are unquestioned." Two good pointers to the state of the religious health of Ireland were, in his estimation, vocations to the religious life and the missionary eflx)rt, and such views were not confined to Irish prelates. Catholic culture as it existed in Ireland was the envy of visiting clerics. In 1950 Archbishop McKeefrey on a visit from New Zealand saw Ireland as "a land of faith . . . a faith that pemieates every phase of personal, social and national life. It could be seen every moment of the day, be it in church, on a street car."'* He was stnick with the salutations he and "countless other priests" received continually on O'Connell Street, how eager people were to pay their respects to the priesthood and regarded himself as "privileged to live for a short time in an atmosphere impregnated with the faith." The 1950s represented the final phase of nineteenth century devotional revolution Catholicism. Its foremost features were the remarkably high level of religious practice, the legitimization by the state of the Catholic ethos, the authoritarian approach of the bishops towards their followers, the high number of vocations to the religious life and the extent to which the thinking, rituals, language and symbols of Catholicism informed consciousness. The tenns Irish and Catholic were still seen as synonymous and the discourse engaged in by church personnel played a powerful role in the fomiation of consciousness and identity. Writing in the Furrow in 1950, Archbishop D'Alton, Archbishop of Annagh and Primate of All Ireland, could happily conclude, "|w|here their religion is concerned, the heart of our people is essentially sound. Irish Catholics, even amidst the temptations of modem life, are deeply attached to their Faith, and loyal in the practice of it.""

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The archbishop's confidence in relation to the healthy state of Irish Catholicism at that time is understandable, when one considers the many devotional activities engaged in by the laity as well as the Mass. Among them were processions, pilgrimages, confraternities, sodalities, parish missions, benediction, novenas, the rosary, Marian devotions, the Nine First Fridays, cults of devotion to saints, and others. Chief among the symbols that most conjure up that era were the Sacred Heart picture with the eternal lamp, the Papal Marriage Blessing, the St. Martin de Porres "Black Babies" boxes in pubs and shops, and the Catholic Truth Society stall at the back of the church. In southem Ireland in the 1950s the Catholic Church's hegemony was uncontested. In a traditional society such as Ireland was at that time, where anything more than basic education was the privilege of the few, rituals evoked a powerful emotional response and at the same time impressed and legitimated certain values, attitudes, customs and ideas. They promoted a world view infomied by the spirit of Catholicism. The social solidarity and shared meanings that existed at the time are captured in the description of the 1954 Marian Year procession through Dublin city centre in the Irish Independent: All traffic was suspended for more than two hours . . . As His Grace gave the benediction, amiy tnimpeters sounded a royal salute which was carried over the public address system. A hush fell over the streets and the great throng knelt on the roadways. The heart of the city for that brief moment was silent in prayer. Marian devotion was very popular in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s and the former 7n.s77 Times journalist, John Healy, captured this in his book Nineteen Acres: There was no need for words now. The clock would strike ten. Grandma would put her sewing aside. From a nail on the wall she'd take the big Ro.sary heads . . . we got up from our seats, knelt down with our backs to the fire and one another, leaned our elbows on the seat . . . and made the responses. It was so in my mother's day and it would be so in my childhood days. " On Saturday nights, there were long queues for confession throughout the length and breadth of the country. Fear of committing a mortal sin was huge in those days. If somebody died and was not in a "state of grace," this meant loss of etemal salvation. Sins had to be confessed in "number and kind"—by that meant in detail, as well as the number of times they had been committed. Graphic images of hell-fire and damnation were etched into people's consciousness, in particular by Redemptorist preachers at parish missions every few years. Patrick Kavanagh in his autobiography Tarry Flynn described when "the Mission came round" and "every able-bodied man and woman in the parish was present at the opening of the Mission" and by the end of the mission "the massed congregation" had vowed "to renounce the World, the Flesh and the Devil." Inculcation of fear began in school. In Frank O'Connor's short story "The First Confession," the teacher's graphic portrayal of Hell ensures that the boy is petrified of making a bad first confession and "burning all over in roasting hot furnaces for all eternity." Notwithstanding Irish Catholics' loyalty to the practice of their religion, bishops at that time worried constantly about, what was temied, the "endless quest for pleasure" and a growing restlessness of spirit and impatience with discipline which they perceived among the younger generation. Their pastoral letters at the beginning of Lent were replete with wamings about dangers to the Catholic way of life, and they constantly stressed the

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necessity for penance and self-mortification. The fall of Adam and Eve and the effects of original sin meant that Catholics were constantly reminded that they had to struggle against the dark side of their nature. The emphasis on subduing the passions and thus conquering the world, the flesh and the devil, was an integral part of the ideal Catholic way of life, as presented by the Bishops in their Lenten pastorals. The baser instincts had to be conquered. The sexual instinct was viewed in a particularly fearful and suspicious light. In this context the bishops saw late night dancing, the consumption of alcoholic liquor, "evil literature," cinema, immodest dress, popular songs and "company-keeping" as possible "occasions of sin" which tempted people away from the true path to salvation. On the other hand, the practice of late marriages and non-marriage, prevalent in rural areas, which had its origin in the bleak conditions of post-famine Ireland, was much deplored by many of the rural bishops, in particular by Bishop Lucey of Cork. He regarded the preference for late marriage as undesirable, "particularly if so late as to entail a small family or none at all." He detected in this symptoms of the materialistic outlook much criticized by many of the bishops at the time. Lucey often gave his views on this sad state of affairs at confimiation ceremonies and in 1954 his reflections on these matters were to provide the inspiration for a book entitled TIK Vanishing Irish, which was edited by Mgr. J. A. O'Brien, an Irish American priest. O'Brien quoted comments made by Lucey in the course of a confimiation address in Ballingeary, County Cork, in which he envisaged a bleak future for Ireland: The rural population is vanishing, and with it is vanishing tlie Iristi race itsetf. For the rural families are the wellsprings from which the towns and cities replenish themselves, and if they are drying up, then inevitably we are doomed to wither away as a nation. Rural Ireland is stricken and dying and the will to marry on the land is almost gone.''' There were other contributors to the book, who had a different angle on the problem. Many of them attributed it to excessive sermonizing on the evils of "companykeeping," the temi by which churchmen at the time referred to relationships between members of the opposite sex. Among these were the writers Bryan MacMahon and John D. Sheridan. MacMahon complained of the "whole artillery of our Irish church" being "brought to bear on that mysterious subversive force—the 'company-keepers.'"^" Sheridan echoed MacMahon pointing out that in order to have marriages "we rmist have company-keeping." They were reacting to what a writer in the Furrow in 1953 referred to as "the grim censorious attitude in rural Ireland to girls and boys walking out together," which he saw, as did they, as being a contributory factor in the low and late marriage statistics in rural Ireland." But there was evidence even in the 1940s and 1950s that attitudes were changing. In the early 1940s Sean O'Faolain in the Bett, wrote of a "new jostling spirit" to be seen in "the wholesale exodus from the countryside." He observed that "men are leaving home who were content enough to stay hitherto." He felt even then that Ireland was "feeling the full force of the cold blast of social change." He put it down to "physical dissatisfaction" likely to have been inspired by "the movies, which have now penetrated to the smallest villages." '^ Here he was touching on two areas of concern which loomed large in bishops' pastorals at that time—emigration and the lure of the cinema. In 1948, when the problem of emigration was seen to have reached crisis proportions, the Irish govemment appointed a commission, having as its remit to examine

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emigration and other population problems. The commission's report published in 1956, revealed that the conditions of country life were now quite unacceptable to many people and went on to say: Through the cinema, the radio, and above all by direct experience, either personal or through relatives, people . . . are . . . becoming aware of the contrast between their way of life and that in other countries, especially in urban centres.... They are gradually becoming less willing to accept the relatively frugal standards of previous generations. The ready availability of work in Britain's war economy gave Irish emigrants an opportunity to eam money, which gave them an independence that hitherto, in the depressed economic conditions of Ireland, they could only have dreamed of John Healy, in Death of an Irish Town, pointed to the disruptive influence these emigrants had on the social fabric of a rural community, when they returned on leave and "hammered the last remaining defences in the rigid social and economic system," posing a challenge to traditional values and ways of thinking. The bishops were more than aware of the dangers posed to Catholic cultural hegemony, which was hard earned through the nineteenth century and consolidated with the help of politicians from the early years of native govemment. However, when they addressed themselves to the problem of emigration, they were primarily concerned with the danger of "leakage" of the faith that often resulted and they berated the young for their flight from the land and the resulting mral decline. In his pastoral letter of 1952 Bishop McNamee of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise pointed out: The craze for emigration in Ireland derives ultimately not from economic or political conditions, but from a false sense of values, from a growing restlessness of spirit, a mood of discontent with the old and the familiar; a craving for something new and strange; a materialistic outlook on life. These comments on McNamee's part were very typical of the generality of the bishops' at the time. While on the one hand, they were reflecting the kind of attitudes that were developing among people when they opted to reject the land and either emigrate or migrate to the city, they did not seem to grasp that this was symptomatic of a problem that went much deeper—what the Commission on Emigration referred to as "a psychological and econoinic malaise" and that the supposedly comfortable existence which could be eked out on the land, with a combination of thrift and industry, no longer constituted the height of people's ambitions. The bishops were trying to arrest a process that was inevitable. The widespread rejection of the conditions of rural life which had been characteristic of most western countries since the turn of the century was now happening in Ireland. Deep in Catholic consciousness was the emphasis on the necessity for sacrifice and self-denial. Bishops in their pastorals repeatedly reminded the faithful of the importance of the spirit of mortification. Also central to the thinking of Catholicism was the idea that while one's life situation might not be quite what one would have wished for, it was not right to be resentful. This had to be seen as the will of God, accepted and the way to deal with it was to "offer it up" and wait for one's reward in the next life, because it was only then that true happiness could be attained. The fact that many people were discontented with their situation and were seeking to improve it, rather than simply putting up with it, had profound implications for Irish Catholic culture.

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The harsh reality of mral life and the price it exacted from those who committed their lives to it had been captured by Patrick Kavanagh as early as 1942 in his poem "The Great Hunger." The poem was a stark indictment of the bleakness of the rural life in Iniskeen, Co. Monaghan where he grew up. He captured at first hand the sense of desperation and helplessness which was driving people out, when he described: Poor Paddy Maguire, a fourteen-hour day He worked for years. It was he that lit the fire And boiled the kettle and gave the cows their hay." He listened to his mother when she told him: "Now go to Mass and pray and confess your sins and you'll have all the luck."'*'' He did his duty, but his was a bitter legacy when at length she died and he was left bereft. The poem captures the bleak mood of the time, which changed people's consciousness and forced them into making very hard decisions about their future. Such a bitter fate as that of Paddy Maguire, they had decided, was not going to be theirs. The Limerick Rural Survey report commissioned by Muintir na Tire and published in 1962, and Hugh Brody's research in County Clare in the 1960s gave further evidence of a profound change in attitudes among country people. In both cases they pointed to the attractions of urban centres and the higher expectations people had drawn from "film, magazines and newspapers."'' There was by now a more individualistic pursuit of personal fulfilment and the tendency to ignore the demands of what had been seen in the past, as duty, particularly when these demands conflicted with self-interest. The spirit of sacrifice—the very bed-rock of Catholic teaching—which destined Paddy Maguire to a lonely bachelor existence on the land was in retreat. As time went by, the new generation would no longer be as disposed to be "faithful to death," either to the rural homestead or to an aged parent, as he had been. Catholicism at that time was very much taken up with rules and regulations, and the bishops' approach to the laity was prescriptive and dogmatic. An indication of their approach can be seen in the tone of their reaction to the Licensed Vintners and Grocers' lobby who were agitating for a relaxation of the licensing laws from 1948. Having seen off earlier efforts to introduce legislation in 1948, when further representations were made in 1950, the bishops asserted: Largely in deference to our wishes the Bill was decisively rejected, and we were under the impression that our guidance in this matter, so intimately connected with .. . public morals, was accepted, and we expected that no further attempt would be made to modify the existing civil law forbidding the sale of intoxicating drink on the Lord's '^ Given that they had already pointed out in 1948 that a change in legislation would lead to "a grave increase in intemperance and to other moral evils," they were now decidedly impatient that "it has, therefore, become necessary for us to set forth our views on this matter once more."' ' But what was important was that they had recourse to State law, to support what was a Catholic precept. Their approach was patemalistic and authoritarian. In time the power of the bishops would be more open to question, but in 1950 there was no doubting either the power they wielded or its effectiveness. The agitation came to an abrupt close and several years passed before courage was mustered to re-open "negotiations."

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But not too long after a controversy arose which would be a tuming point in Irish Catholic culture. Noel Browne, Minister for Health in the Inter-Party government (1948—51) proposed to introduce a scheme of free medical care for mothers and children up to the age of 16 years. The hierarchy objected as did the medical profession. Medical care for women was a particularly sensitive issue as far as the bishops were concerned. They saw the proposed scheme as state interference in an area which did not concern it, and the issue provoked a Church—State confrontation. When Noel Browne was not prepared to accede to the hierarchy's demands, the govemment decided that his scheme should be abandoned and asked for his resignation. On the day of his resignation, Browne sent the full documentation of the correspondence which had passed between him, the bishops and the taoiseach to all the newspapers. The move was unprecedented, and for the first time in the history of the State the role of the Church was under public scrutiny. The politicians in the Dail were deferential to the point of servility in the debate on the issue, Noel Browne himself declaring that he "as a Catholic [accepted] unequivocally and unreservedly the views of the hierarchy on this matter." Nonetheless, the controversy and the aftennath marked a crossroads in Irish Catholic culture, and the widening of a sub-culture of dissent which generally speaking had only involved the intelligentsia or literati up to that time. It had its roots in the protracted debate that followed on the subject of Church—State relations in newspapers and various journals. The Irish Times set the tone of the debate, when the morning after Browne's resignation the leader writer observed that "the Roman Catholic church would seem to be the effective government of the country." The question was being asked whether the bishops were overstepping their authority and one side of the argument held, quite emphatically, that they were. Sean O'Faolain in the Bell pointed out that "nobody has denied the right of the Catholic bishops to 'comment' or to give 'advice' on proposed legislation." He even conceded the hierarchy's right to condemn a proposed piece of legislation "provided that, in the end, it is the parliament which freely decides." However, he pointed out that "in practice the hierarchy does much more than 'comment' or 'advise'. It 'commands.'" The bishops, for the first time, were being put in the position of defending their role as they saw it. Later on in the same year, in an address to the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, Archbishop D'Alton of Amiagh defended the Church's position when he pointed out that "we have a right to expect that our social legislation will not be in conflict with Catholic principles." This was a crucial statement. There was no questioning this expectation up to now. It had been fact since the foundation of the State. Now this principle was being questioned, and as it came more and more to be questioned Catholicism's position as the informing spirit of Irish culture would be eroded gradually. The fact that there were dissenting voices in the 1950s both outside and inside the Catholic Church is not always fully emphasized. In my own work I have highlighted the influence of the Furrou-'founded in 1950 by CanonJ. G. McGarry of St Patrick's College, Maynooth. Doctrine and Life founded in 1951 and Cliristiis Rex in 1948 also contained articles which were provocative and challenging to the status quo. Many clerical contributors to these joumals did not share Archbishop D'Alton's optimism about Irish Catholic devotional fervour. The high level of religious practice was not, as far as they were concerned, an index of the spiritual health of a nation. They feared that traditional Irish Catholicism, supported by legislation, enforcing morality by very strict and specific

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rules, protected by censorship from what were seen as alien patterns of thought, could not withstand the more secularist ideas and culture of the era of mass communications and travel which was then on the horizon. In 1959 in an article in Doctrine and Life Frjohn C. Kelly SJ put the matter bluntly: Too many people in Ireland today are trying to make do with a peasant religion when they are no longer peasants any more. We are a growing and developing middle-class nation, acquiring a middle-class culture, and we must have a religion to fit our needs. In the late 1950s there was considerable cross-fertilization of ideas taking place among difl^erent groups in Irish society in the context of a growing desire for change. One such group was Tuairim and in 1959 Fr Peter Connolly, Professor of English at St Patrick's College, Maynooth delivered a lecture to their Dublin branch on the subject of censorship. In what turned out to be a seminal paper, published in Christus Rex in July of the same year, he argued that not everything which was sinful should be made illegal. Connolly stressed that "you can't in fact make men good by act of parliament" and went on to point out that: . . . the Church ought not compromise her moral authority with the compulsions of civil law nor ought the State intrude into the private moral life unless "public morality" or "the public order" is being menaced. Civil law does not deal fonnally with sin or conscience but with misdemeanours and crimes which offend the community. His thinking was quite revolutionary for the late 1950s. It was not until the 1970s that the bishops issued oflicial statements to the effect that they did not expect the civil law to uphold the Catholic moral order. But things were changing in Irish society even as Connolly was writing. When the issue of the relaxation of the licensing laws came up again in the late 1950s, the bishops did not have the final say. When the Intoxicating Liquor Bill was introduced in late 1959, Taoiseach Sean Lemass acknowledged that the hierarchy had a right to speak out. However, he disagreed with their arguments, and the Bill became law. ' Because it was the first time in the history of the state that a government had actually defied the recommendations of the hierarchy, it marked a watershed in Church—State relations and thereby in Irish Catholic culture. Of course, by the late 1950s the political climate had changed radically. De Valera had been succeeded as taoiseach by Sean Lemass in 1959. The Programme for Economic Expansion in 1958 ' signalled a decisive shift in economic thinking which was to have a ripple effect right throughout Irish society. Economic rather than religious imperatives were to guide political thinking increasingly from the late 1950s. The arrival of a new Irish television station in 1961, the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council held between 1962 and 1965, the extension of educational opportunity through the 1960s, the relaxation of the censorship laws and the development of the Women's Liberation Movement in the late 1960s all contributed to a more hberal mood and a more open Irish society—which was set to undemiine the Catholic cultural hegemony which had been consolidated since independence. The Vatican Council did not just make changes—it ushered in a new mood—a more optimistic Catholic culture. The new brand of Catholicism underwritten by the Second Vatican Council was democratic rather than authoritarian—authority was in fact redefined as service—it emphasized love rather than adherence to rules and had a positive

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rather than a negative view of human nature. It was a blueprint for a more open questioning model of church—which was in stark contrast to the legalistic model which had characterized Ireland till then. The theological debates and arguments publicized by the media during the conciliar debates showed that answers to moral questions were not always as clear-cut as Catholics were led to believe. The role of conscience and responsibility for moral decisions was emphasized. Possibly, the most important outcome for Catholic culture was that the era of certainties was undemiined forever. One of the principal ways that the certainties and taboos of the past were demolished in Ireland was by means of the new Irish television station, Telefis Eireann, inaugurated on New Year's Eve 1961. Whereas Radio Eireann had reinforced the Catholic ethos, Telefis Eireann from the beginning questioned the Catholic status quo. The image of a monolithic church speaking with one voice on all issues and a deferential laity was dispelled ovemight. Clerics disagreed openly with the official Church line on issues like divorce and contraception and lay Catholics could speak their minds openly, notwithstanding the fact that this might prove less than reverential towards the Church authorities. The impact of television and in particular a Saturday night chat show—the Late Late Show—on the national consciousness has been pointed up by several commentators. Two episodes of the show in particular in the niid-1960s caused a furore. Looking back, one might wonder what all the fuss was about, but they marked a critical turning point. The first related to a woman who appeared on the show and was asked the colour of her night attire on her wedding night. She replied that she had not worn any. The incident became a cause celebre ovemight as Bishop Thomas Ryan of Clonfert sent a telegram to the producer and compere of the show, protesting at what he considered to be a "disgraceful perfomiance."'^'' The incident got front-page coverage in both Irish Sunday newspapers the following day, and the following week all the newspapers became involved in the furore surrounding the incident. The shock waves it provoked had hardly passed when on the same show the following month in the course of a panel discussion there was a reference to Bishop Browne of Galway as a moron because of his commissioning of a new cathedral. A panelist saw this new cathedral as a "ghastly monstrosity." This incident also received front-page newspaper coverage, and the phone lines to RTE were jammed with protests. For Ireland, what was happening was nothing short of revolutionary. Television pushed back the frontiers of what was acceptable overnight. As a medium, it was impervious to power or position. It became the ultimate leveller. The kind of distance, aloofness and mystique which characterized the episcopal office in the past was demystified with ease. Television's ultimate weapon was public ridicule, should one choose to confront it. While apologies were made for the comments made regarding Bishop Browne's plans for a new cathedral, the Director General of RTE defended the show. He pointed out that the show had "established itself as a successful television programme with wide public acceptance."^° The criteria for what was acceptable were no longer being set down by the bishops. The protection guaranteed by censorship was no longer possible in the era of the live show. In due course, television would assume the role of taskmaster and demand accountability of bishops, politicians, public servants and private persons alike. The new dispensation was spelt out clearly in an Irish Times editorial on 29 March 1966.

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People in public life must accept the rigours of public life . . . In so far as people who are not politicians take part in public life, or comment on public affairs, they must expect to suffer the same attentions—adulation and abuse—as other public men.^' This kind of thinking, as it gradually gained more currency, signalled a new era for the Irish bishops. If proof was needed that the mood of Catholicism had changed fundamentally, it came at the time of the promulgation of the encyclical Humanae Vitae on 17 July 1968. The encyclical represented Pope Paul VI's effort to reassert papal authority in response to the more liberal attitudes which had developed as a result of the Second Vatican Council. But the resistance and objections to the Pope's position on artificial birth-control and the intense controversy it provoked represented a crisis of authority for the Church. The right to dogmatic authority was challenged, and the exercise of such authority would be problematic from that time forth. The diametrically opposed reactions to the encyclical by two moral theologians at the time captured the division that it caused in Irish Catholic thinking. Professor P. F. Cremin, Professor of Moral Theology and Canon Law at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, commended Pope Paul VI's reassertion of traditional Catholic teaching: "I personally have never received a better piece of news." On the other hand Fr James Good, a UCC-based moral theologian described the encyclical as "a major tragedy," expressing the opinion that it would "be rejected by the majority of Catholic theologians and by Catholic lay people."^"' Taoiseach Sean Lemass's historic meeting with Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northem Ireland in 1965, gave rise to a new mood of co-operation and friendliness between Northem Ireland and the Republic. In some quarters an expectation emerged that the end of partition might be at hand, and an all-party Dail committee was set up to review the Constitution. In their report, published in 1967, the committee questioned Article 41, which prohibited divorce. This prohibition was seen as "a source of embarrassment to those seeking to bring about better relations between North and South" since divorce was available in Northem Ireland.' The report also questioned Article 44 which acknowledged the "special position" of the Catholic Church, seeing it as giving "offence to non-Catholics" and as "a useful weapon in the hands of those who are anxious to emphasize the differences between North and South." In support of their recommendations for change they referred to the more liberal attitudes prevailing in Catholic circles since the Second Vatican Council and were able to invoke Vatican Council documents to press their case, in particular the Declaration on Religious Freedom and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World which stated that the Catholic Church "does not seek any special recognition or privilege as compared with other religions." This led to the deletion of the "special position" clause after a referendum held on 7 December 1972. While the hierarchy raised no objection to that change, they reacted vehemently against the possibility of divorce legislation. Bishop Lucey of Cork commented that "it is a proposal that I trust we have heard the last of"" But Irish Catholics by this time had become much more confident that they could arrive at their own moral decisions. The Church now had a far more demanding spiritual role to play which had to be executed by persuasion and witness rather than the traditional laying down of rules. Attitudes were being fomied increasingly by more secular, liberal views of morality. There was no room for the paternalism of the past.

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The fact that Irish Cathohcs had developed a new mentality was clearly shown by the findings of the first major survey investigating religious practice, attitudes and beliefs among Irish Catholics which was published in 1974. The survey, undertaken by the Bishops' Research and Development Commission, showed that while 91% of those surveyed attended weekly Mass this did not mean that they lived their lives according to church precepts, particularly in the area of sexual morality. The phrase, a la carte Catholicism, was used to describe the new dispensation. The contraception issue dominated the 1970s. The two pieces of legislation goveming contraceptives in Ireland were the 1929 Censorship of Publications Act prohibiting the publication, distribution and selling of literature advocating birth-control and the 1935 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, section 17, which prohibited the importation, manufacture and sale of contraceptives. In the refomiist post-Vatican II climate, there was widespread hope not only in Ireland, but throughout the Catholic world that the Catholic attitude condemning birth-control would change. The first attempt to change the law relating to contraception came from a group of young senators-—Mary Robinson, John Horgan and Trevor West in 1971. It was to be the first of a number of attempts throughout the 1970s. It was this issue which forced the bishops to reassess their role and challenged them to become a force of a somewhat different kind in the new Ireland that was taking shape. During that decade, by way of three key statements, they clarified and defended their role and having done so, were obliged to let the democratic process take its course. In 1973 they pointed out that "no change in the State law canmake the use of contraceptives morally right since what is wrong in itself remains wrong, regardless of what state law says." It was what followed that made this statement a watershed in the history of Church—State relations in Ireland. The bishops went on to assert: It does not follow, of course, that the State is bound to prohibit the importation and sale of contraceptives. There are many things which the Catholic Church holds to be morally wrong and no one has ever suggested, least of all the Church herself that they should be prohibited by the State. But they had, in fact, expected State law to bolster Catholic precepts up to that time. Even in the 1970s they fought a vigorous campaign against enomious pressure for change, so much so, that when legislation was introduced, it was very limited in its provisions. However it was the first step in the process of liberalization which would increasingly gather momentum from that time. The Family Planning Act, described by Charles Haughey, Minister for Health, as an "Irish solution for an Irish problem" was passed in 1979.'" The new law provided for contraceptives to be made available in chemist shops on production of a medical prescription. During its passage. Bishop McNamara of Kerry made an interesting observation in an article in Doctrine and Life, when he noted that it was "not the State's duty to make better Christians, still less better Catholics."' From that point on, the bishops would increasingly have to perfonn that task without the support of state legislation, on which they had been able to rely fomierly. The position of the bishops had changed radically between 1950 and 1979. Pope John Paul II made his historic visit to Ireland two months later in September 1979. The enomious crowds that tumed out to greet the Pope in all the venues he visited

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appeared to echo the Catholic fervour and devotion of the 1950s. In all of his speeches he addressed and challenged the more liberal influences which had come to prevail in Irish society in the late 1960s and particularly in the 1970s. His message, however, did not halt the further progress of more liberal developments which have accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Politicians since that time have pursued an increasingly independent line in social legislation. They no longer defer to the bishops in matters of policy making but are subject to the democratic wiU of the people. This is of course because the electorate that they serve is no longer as disposed to listen to the advice of bishops as in the past. The landmarks of change can be charted from then. Further liberalization of the law in relation to family planning took place in 1985*''' and 1992' despite the objections of the bishops. In 1993 legislation was passed which legalized homosexual practices as a result of a directive from the European Court of Human Rights.' A referendum to remove the constitutional ban on divorce was carried by a narrow margin of less than 1% in 1995.' In 2002 the electorate rejected a referendum proposal, which the bishops had urged Catholics to support and which, if it had been passed, would have outlawed suicide as a ground for abortion, which had been found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1992." Many commentators saw this as the final definitive rebuff to the influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland. When the bishops' conference spokesperson Fr Martin Clarke was asked for his reaction when the result was announced, while expressing disappointment, he responded that we must "accept with serenity the people's will."' When one considers the tone of the bishops' statements in the 1950s, the wheel had certainly come full circle, and many media commentators, apparently, felt that it was now their turn to be triumphant. The Irish Times in its lead article proclaimed that the "grand alignment of Fianna Fail, the Catholic Church and the official Pro-Life campaign has, for the first time, failed to produce a majority on a sensitive moral issue in middle Ireland after a lengthy and co-ordinated campaign."' The triumphant tone of this comment has to be understood against the background of the authoritarianism of the past and also the very dark side of Irish Catholicism which had come to light in the previous 10 years and the fact that the Church authorities were seen as both hypocritical and inhumane in dealing with the issue of abuse. Catholicism in Ireland has to leam lessons from the legacy of the past—if it is to move forward and wishes to have a significant (as opposed to a marginal) influence on Irish culture in the future. Time will tell whether it has the capacity to do so.

NOTES 1. Emmet Larkin, "The Devotional Revolution in Ireland, 1850—1875," American Historical Review 77, 3 (1972): 644-5. 2. Bunreacht na liEireann (Dublin, n.d.), 144. 3. Dail Debates, vol. 67, col. 1890 (4 June 1937). 4. Irish Catectieticat Directory {ICD), 1949 (24 February 1948): 705. 5. ICD, 1952 (10 April 1951): 652-3. 6. James Devane, Irish Rosary (December 1952). 7. Ibid. 8. Edward Long, "Irish Piety," Furrow 1, 2 (March 1950): 12. 9. Archbishop P. J. B. McKeefrey, "Farewell to Shannon," Furrow 1, 2 (March 1950): 5-8. 10.

Ibid.

Religion, Politics and Socio-cutturat Ctiange ^•»' 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

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Archbishop D'Alton, "The Furrow and its Programme," Furrow 1, 1 (February 1950): 6. Irish Independent (17 May 1954): 5. John Healy, Nineteen Acres (Achill: House of Healy, 1978), 9. Patrick Kavanagh, Tarry Ftynn (Hamiondsworth: Penguin, 1978), 32, 44. Frank O'Connor, "First Confession," in Exptoring Englisti: An Anthotogy of Short Stories, ed. Augustine Martin (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan and Educational Company of Ireland, 1969), 65-73:66. Louise Fuller, Irish Catholicism since 1950: Tlie Undoing of a Culture (Dublin: Gill and MacmiUan, 2004), 38-42, 52-4. Cork Examiner (4 March 1955). John A. O'Brien, ed.. The Vanishing Irish (London: W.H. Allen, 1954). Ibid., 41. Bryan MacMahon, "Getting on the High Road Again," in Tlie Vanishing Irish, ed. O'Brien, 211. John D. Sheridan, "We're Not Dead Yet," in The Vanishing Irish, ed. O'Brien, 188. Charles E. Kelly, "May W e Laugh Please," Furrow 4, 12 P e c e m b e r 1953): 700. Quoted in Terence Brown, Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-1985 (London: Fontana Press, 1985), 199. Ibid. Commission on Emigration and Other Population Problems 1948-1954 (1956), 172. Folio typescript held at St. Patricks College, Maynooth, Para. 438, P. 172. John Healy, No One Shouted Stop: Death of an Irish Town (AchiD: The House of Healy, 1988), 20. Irish Independent (25 February 1952): 6. Commission on Emigration (1954), 180. Patrick Kavanagh, Selected Poems (Hamiondsworth: Penguin, 1996), 23. Ibid., 28. Limerick Rural Survey (Tipperary, 1964), 251-4. Hugh Brody, Inishkittane: Change and Decline in ttie West of Iretand (Hamiondsworth: Penguin, 1973), 71, 99. Ibid., 128. Kavanagh, Selected Poems, 22. Statement of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, 20 June 1950, published in Furrow 1, 7 (August 1950): 363-6. Ibid., 363-4. Dail Debates, vol. 125, col. 668 (12 April 1951). Irish Times (12 April 1951). Sean O'Faolain, "The Dail and the Bishop," Be//XVII(3) (June 1951): 6. Ibid. ICD, 1952 (10 October 1951): 709. Fr John C. Kelly SJ, "Solid Virtue in Ireland," Doctrine and Life 9, 5 (October—November 1959): 120. Fr Peter Connolly, "Censorship," Christus Rex (July 1959):156. XIII, 3. Ibid., 155. Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1960, No. 18, in public statutes of the Oireachtas, 1960. Programme for Economic Expansion (Dublin: The Stationery Office, 1958). Incident recalled by Gay Byrne, compere of the Late Late Show in To Wliom it Concerns P u b l i n : Gill and Macmillan, 1972), 71-4. Sunday Press (13 February 1966): 1; Sunday Independent (13 February 1966): 1. Byrne, To Whom it Concerns, 86—91. Ibid., 94-5. Irish Times (29 March 1966): 9. Irish Times (30 July 1968): 1. Ibid.

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54. 55. 56. 57.

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Report of the Committee on ttie Constitution (Dublin, 1967), 43. Itnd., 47-8. Irish Independent (26 February 1968): 6. Survey of Religious Practice, Attitudes and Betiefs in the Republic of Ireland 1973-1974, Report no. 1, Religious Practice Dublin, 1975, 2, 17. See also Report no. 2, Retigious Betiefs and Vatiies Dublin, 1975, and Report no. 3, Morat Vatues Dublin, 1976, 16 (Dublin: Research and Development Unit, Catholic Communications Institute of Ireland, 1975, 1976). 58. Statement of the Irish Episcopal Conference, 25 November 1973, published in the Irish Times (26 November 1973): 1. 59. It)id. 60. Health (Family Planning) Act 1979, No. 20 in public statutes of the Oireachtas, 1979. 61. Kevin McNamara, "Church and State," Doctrine and Life 30, 3, 4 (March-April 1979): 141. 62. Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1985, No. 4 in public statutes of the Oireachtas, 1985. 63. Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1992, No. 20 in public statutes of the Oireachtas, 1992. 64. Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993, No. 20 in public statutes of the Oireachtas, 1993. 65. Irish Times (27 November 1995): 1. 66. See the Irish Times (8 March 2002): 1. 67. Reaction of Fr Martin Clarke, spokesperson for the bishops, when questioned by Charlie Bird, chief news correspondent, RTE, on 6.01 news, RTE, 7 March 2002. 68. Irish Times, 8 March 2002, 15. See also 14.