Marriage Equality and the Catholic Church in Ireland Helen Meaney
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Master Thesis In the Name of the Father, and of the Son: Marriage Equality and the Catholic Church in Ireland Helen Meaney Supervisor: Christina Bergqvist Year: Autumn 2016 Words: 13 869 Points: 15 Abstract This thesis will use the final Marriage Equality Referendum debate which took place on the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ in May 2015 and analyse the No campaign’s willingness to be associated with the Catholic Church through discourse and framing analysis. This qualitative study aspires to ascertain the salience of the Catholic Church to the Irish electorate in areas of moral-social policy in Ireland. It will be found that substantial Catholic identification and high levels of religiosity does not necessitate influence of the Church over the electorate. Table of Contents List of Acronyms.................................................................................................... 1 Irish Titles ............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2 Aims and Research Question ............................................................................... 3 Disposition ........................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review .................................................................................................. 6 Theory ................................................................................................................... 11 Research Question .......................................................................................... 16 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 19 Case Selection and Primary Source Analysis ................................................. 19 Research Limitations ...................................................................................... 19 RTÉ Debate .......................................................................................................... 20 Framing Analysis ........................................................................................... 25 Discourse Analysis ......................................................................................... 25 The Campaign ...................................................................................................... 26 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 30 Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 32 Addendum ............................................................................................................ 36 List of Acronyms EVS European Values Survey GLEN Gay and Lesbian Equality Network ICCL Irish Council for Civil Liberties ISSP International Social Survey Programme RTÉ Radió Teilifís Éireann TD Teachta Dála USI The Union of Students in Ireland Irish Titles Bunreacht na hÉireann The Constitution of Ireland Dáil Éireann The lower house of the Oireachtas (‘the Dáil) Éire Ireland Fianna Fáil An Irish political party Fine Gael An Irish political party Radió Teilifís Éireann The national public broadcaster in Ireland Seanad Éireann The upper house of the Oireachtas (‘the Seanad’) Tánaiste Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland Taoiseach Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland Teachta Dála A TD is a member of Dáil Éireann The Oireachtas The Irish Parliament 1 Introduction Modern democracies are increasingly considered to be free from religious jurisdiction. This preconception is challenge by numerous studies which suggest otherwise, highlighting the influences of religion on policies and legislation (Knill, Preidel, and Nebel 2014; Knill 2013; Knill and Preidel 2015; Engeli, Green-Pedersen, and Larsen 2013; Mooney and Schuldt 2008; Fink 2009). The Republic of Ireland has a heritage of strong church-state relations with the Catholic Church; the state’s laws and society often reflect the Church’s influence. To this day the Constitution of Ireland, Bunreacht na hÉireann, is opened with the preamble: In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial, (“Bunreacht Na hÉireann” 2016) As noted by Chrystel Hug, law and morality overlapped in the Irish constitution and the Church teachings were indoctrinated into civil authority (Hug 2001). In drawing much of its social and moral policy from Catholic teachings, Bunreacht na hÉireann established an enduring church- state relationship in Ireland for the resulting decades. Particular passages ‘accorded family, marriage and mothers a key place’(Canavan 2012, 19). Article 41.3.1 of the Irish constitution stated that: ‘The state pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the family is founded, and to protect it against attack’. (“Bunreacht Na hÉireann” 2016, 164) The Catholic Church in Ireland has, from the formation of the Irish Republic, been a central power player in the state’s society and politics. An example of the Church’s enduring influence in the state can be noted through the fact that Catholic Bishops are still patrons of 95% of the primary schools in Ireland (Inglis 2007). Some suggest that the Church through education has been able to maintain its symbolic domination and pass its teachings and rituals on to each new generation (Donnelly and Inglis 2010, 6). In the final decades of the 20th century the Irish State made great strides in separating the Church and State. Much of the Catholic Church’s influence on social policy is today restricted to the Church’s legacy in the foundation of the Irish State and Constitution. In 2015 the Irish government held a referendum to change the Irish constitution to allow for marriage equality; same-sex marriage in addition to opposite-sex marriage. Given the Catholic nature of the Irish state, and population, the introduction of marriage equality was never a certainty 2 regardless of world trends illustrating increased favourability to the introduction of marriage equality. However, despite the high religiosity of the Irish populace, and legacy of the Catholic Church’s influence, Ireland became the first state in the world to introduce marriage equality through popular vote. This thesis explores whether the influence of Catholicism in Irish politics remains. The work below will aim to understand the power, if any, the Catholic Church in Ireland has in swaying constitutional change in the Church’s favour through use of high religiosity and referenda. Aim and Research Questions The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the social and political influence held by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Irish State politics, typically viewed as socially conservative, produced a result that was contrary to the religiosity of its voting populous and a first in terms of marriage equality worldwide. This thesis will seek to appraise the Marriage Equality referendum in terms of the importance that the Catholic Church hierarchy and teachings had on the electorate’s voting preference. In turn, this appraisal will hope to flesh out the influence Catholicism has in shaping Irish social policy now and going forward. As stated above, several articles in the Irish Constitution hold the last remnants of the Catholic Church’s influence over state social policies and laws. A constitutional referendum, approved by a simple majority of those voting, is required to ratify any amendment to Bunreacht na hÉireann. This provision originated from the 1922 Constitution of Ireland and was ‘perceived at the time as a conscious reaction against the British style of cabinet government which, Irish nationalists believed, gave too much weight to the executive over the parliament and the people’ (O’Mahony 1998, 225). Irish citizens have thus far voted on thirty-one proposals to amend the constitution, twenty-three of which have been accepted (Farrell 2013). It is important to recognise that ‘in Ireland, Catholic morality was as central to the development of both state law and state politics as it was to the personal development of the individual’ (Hug 2001, 24). During the first half-century of the Irish state ‘questions of what the family is and does were provided by a state that took its lead from the Catholic Church’ (Canavan 2012, 10). Religiosity in Ireland remains high with the majority of the electorate identifying as Catholic. As the Constitution can only be amended by a referendum and the majority of those eligible to vote are Catholic, it would appear that the remnants of the Church’s influence in 3 Ireland’s social policies and laws would likely remain; the status quo being assured by the religiosity of the electorate. Many such referendums on these social ‘moral’ articles have taken place in Ireland; the results often falling into line with the Church’s preference. The introduction of divorce was divisive, the Irish voting twice in referenda on the subject; first in 1986 and then again in 1995 (O’Leary and Hesketh 2007; Tobin 2016). In 1995 divorce legislation was passed by a tiny margin. The first abortion referendum was held in 1983 and