Catholicism and the Irish State - Time to Separate

Kieran Allen

Irish Catholicism is declining. Nomi- republican governments enacted a series of nally, 78 percent of the population declared laws to create a more secular society. In themselves Catholic in a recent census. This 1882, religious education was banned from data, however, is often completed by the French schools; in 1886 priests were banned ‘head of the household’ who defines the re- from schools, and in 1905 the formal separa- ligion of their teenage sons and daughters. tion of the church and state was declared in The reality is that religious practice has France. These attacks on the church, how- fallen dramatically. Only one third of de- ever, differed from the earlier Jacobin tradi- clared Catholics attend mass on a regular tion of the French Revolution which sought basis. In the Dublin area, the figure is to destroy religious belief completely. By even lower at 14 percent.1 Vocations to the contrast, the Ferry laws, as they became priesthood have almost collapsed. At the known, were carried through in the name of high point of Irish Catholicism, every re- a liberal individualism where religion was to spectable family hoped that one of its sons be pushed into a purely private sphere. would enter the priesthood and, possibly, join the great missionary project of con- verting ‘Godless’ Russia or the ‘black ba- Political loyalty bies’ of Africa. During the 1940s and 1950s there were over 20,000 members of religious In Ireland, however, no major political force orders. Today, just about 20 men volun- opposed church control. The main reason teer to train for the priesthood each year in was the ambiguous role that the Catholic Maynooth. There are less than 2,000 priests Church had played in a colonised coun- and their average age is 65 and rising. try. Until the end of the 18th century, the Catholic religion was targeted in a series of The rapidity of the change is even more penal laws imposed from Britain. Catholics remarkable because the Catholic Church were barred from inheriting Protestant land; never faced sustained political opposition excluded from occupying public office; for- until recently. The contrast with the sec- bidden to marry Protestants; banned from ular tradition in France, for example, could entering Trinity College. As a result, the not be more pronounced. Here the church Catholic Church took on all the appearance was identified with the ancient regime of feu- of an oppressed church and adherence to dal privilege. Throughout most of the nine- Catholicism a sign of resistance to imperi- teenth century, it was seen as a supporter of alism. However, British strategy in Ireland the aristocracy and a defender of the worst changed after the French Revolution and it form of reaction, including anti-semitism. sought to incorporate the hierarchy of the As a result, republicans knew that they had Church. It supported the training of priests to combat its influence if were to hold po- in Maynooth and promoted Catholic control litical power. In a major speech in 1900, of schooling. One result was a dramatic in- for example, the French premier Waldeck- crease in the size and strength of the institu- Rousseau, warned about how church repre- tional church. Previously, Irish Catholicism sentatives were ‘doing their best to make had a much looser structure and a greater their pupils hostile to the Republic and to mixture of religious and superstitious beliefs republican ideals’.2 As a defensive measure, but this changed dramatically. The number 1‘Dublin mass attendance drops to all time low of 14 percent’ Irish Central 14 December 2011. 2C. D. Hazen, Modern European History, New York: Henry Holt, 1917 p. 400-401.

3 of priests rose by 150 percent at the very tion of its armed struggle, republicans typi- time the population was shrinking. In 1861, cally responded with anti-clericalism -rather there was one priest for every 755 Catholics than outright opposition to the role of the but by 1911 there was one for every 210.3 Catholic Church. Republican leaders re- The growing niche that the Catholic Church mained devout Catholics and, even while found within the imperial structures made they were condemned by Bishops and Car- it deeply hostile to the Irish revolutionary dinals, found sympathetic individual priests movement. Cardinal Cullen, the leader of as their confessors. Throughout its history the Irish Catholic Church for much of the Sinn Féin ensured that its politics did not nineteenth century put it like this: challenge the Catholic church in any funda- mental way. In 1931, for example, Sinn Féin For thirty years I have studied adopted a radical Saor Éire programme writ- the Revolution on the Continent; ten by Peadar O’Donnell. But after a fero- and for nearly thirty years I have cious assault by the Bishops, a subsequent watched the Nationalist move- Ard Fheis, disassociated the movement from ment in Ireland. It is tainted at ‘anti-Christian principles’ and promised a its sources with the Revolution- social order based on the ideals of Popes ary spirit. If ever an attempt is Pius V and Leo X111.5 In the early 1950s, made to abridge the rights and Sinn Féin adopted a ‘national unity and in- liberties of the Catholic Church dependence programme’ which, promised a in Ireland, it will not be the En- ‘reign of social justice based on Christian glish government, nor by a ‘No principles’.6 The republican fighter Sean Popery’ cry in England but by South of Garryowen is celebrated in song the revolutionary and irreligious for his attack on an RUC barracks. Less nationalists in Ireland.4 well known is his membership of the extreme right wing movement Maria Duce and his Yet alongside this hostility, there re- activities in chasing courting couples out of mained a verbal opposition to ‘Protestant cinemas. The early Provisional IRA often England’. Some of the clergy joined move- said the rosary at its funerals and even in re- ments like the Land League and supported cent years its former Sinn Féin leader Martin Conradh na Gaeilge. One result of this am- McGuinness has stated that abortion ‘on de- biguous legacy was that after independence, mand’ is incompatible with his Catholic be- there was no sustained opposition to the liefs - even if his party was willing to allow church’s role in Irish society from either the it in certain circumstances. republican movement or from the weakened Irish social democracy has taken an even form of Irish social democracy. more supine relationship to the Catholic Irish republicanism differed from French Bishops. Leaders of the Irish unions and republicanism in refusing to challenge the the Labour Party proclaimed their loy- dominant role of the Catholic Church. alty to the Catholic Hierarchy for decades. There was a rhetorical appeal to the ‘unity In the 1940s, for example, the ITGWU of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter’ but formed an alliance with Fianna Fáil and the republican tradition was imbued with The Catholic Standard to attack Larkinism a Catholic culture. Faced with condemna- and communism. It fomented a split in the 3Strauss, Irish Nationalism and British Democracy, p. 210. 4E. Purcell, The Life of Cardinal Manning: Archbishop of Westminster, New York: Macmillan, 1896 p. 610. 5H. Patterson, The Politics of Illusion: Republicanims and socialism in Modern Ireland, London: Hutchin- son Radius 2010. P53. 6ibid.

4 Labour Party and helped to create a Na- and there has been a huge exodus from the tional Labour Party which ‘was clear and land. In 1951, 38 percent of the Irish labour definite on fundamentals intertwined with force worked on farms. Today the figure has Faith and Nationality’.7 The official Labour declined to 5 percent. There are more un- Party, however, was hardly less loyal to the employed people in Ireland today than there same principles. It joined the Bishops in are farmers. Moreover, a very high propor- opposing Noel Browne’s Mother and Child tion of the population identify themselves as scheme which would have given free medi- workers. Some 42 percent of the Irish popu- cal care. Even when Labour shifted left in lation regard themselves as working class - a the late 1960s and proclaimed that ‘the sev- figure that is just below the British figure.9 enties would be socialist’ its leader, Bren- Ireland has also become an increasingly ur- dan Corish, was a member of the Knights of banised society, with 40 percent of the Irish Columbanus, an elite and secretive organisa- population living in the greater Dublin area. tion. He stated that he was a Catholic first, an Irish man second and a socialist third. Industrialisation undermines the bonds He added ‘If the hierarchy gives me any di- which link individuals to church and tra- rection as regard to Catholic social teaching dition. These communal ties were deeply or Catholic moral teaching, I accept with- rooted in rural Ireland and produced a par- out qualification in all respects the teaching ticularly strong variant of Irish Catholicism. of the Hierarchy and church to which I be- Brinsley McNamara captured this intense long.’8 form of conformity in his novel The Valley of Given this history, the question arises the Squinting Windows which tells a story of as to why the Catholic Church declined so a fictional village, Garradrimna, most prob- rapidly. Opposition to the power of the ably based on Devlin in Westmeath. It is Catholic Church only came from the margins a tale of shame, gossip and tragedy based on Irish society and there was no generalised on sexual relations stigmatised by Catholi- opposition to its role in society. Even as cism. However, as Irish people moved off the late as 1983, when Catholic fundamentalists land in vast numbers, belief systems slowly pushed through the eighth amendment to changed. There is a German expression that the Irish constitution which equated the life ‘the city air makes free’ and it could not be of a woman to that of a day old foetus, active more appropriate to Ireland. But the pro- opposition came only from the tiny forces cess was highly uneven and contradictory. of the revolutionary left and radical liber- Irish people began, - in practice, and often als. The Labour Party was largely silent and in secret - to break free of Catholic values in the Workers Party only campaigned against their personal lives. In 1971, for example, 63 it without mentioning the word abortion in percent of the population agreed in a survey their literature. Yet within a decade of this that ‘contraceptives should be forbidden by victory, the Catholic Church had entered a law’.10 But at the same time importation of period of crisis and decline. contraceptives grew and younger people be- The main reason is that that Irish gan to use them more frequently. Sometimes Catholicism came into conflict with the lived this occurred under the guise that the pill experience of people in a rapidly industri- was a ‘cycle regulator’. On other occasions alising society. The working class has ex- packets of condoms were secretly imported panded massively over the last few decades from England and the North. 7ibid. p.75 8B. Chubb, The Government and Politics of Ireland, London, Oxford University Press, 1970 p 103 9D. Goldthorpe and C. Whelan, The Development of Industrial Society in Ireland (Oxford 1992), p. 389. 10B. Girvin, ‘Contraception, Moral Panic and Social Change in Ireland, 1969 -1979’, Irish Political Studies 2008 vol 23 No 4

5 This gradual undermining of Catholic ful, dependent, and subordinate; (2) an un- values produced a reaction from a lay fun- questioning readiness to regard the domestic damentalist movement which was ultimately sphere as her natural habitat and to engage to culminate in the 8th Amendment. Emily in reproduction rather than production; and O Reilly produced a brilliant book in 1992 (3) a willingness to accept that women’s sex- titled Masterminds of the Right which de- uality was confined to marriage.13 In addi- scribed how a network of fanatical Catholics tion, in the 1950s Irish family life was often spearheaded by John 0’Reilly tried turn the characterised by late marriages and then a tide on the ‘permissive society’.11 He even very high birth rate. had his youngest daughter order contracep- But the growing involvement of women tives from the Irish Family Planning Asso- in the paid workforce changed all that. ciation in a legal ruse to try to shut them Women began using contraception and down. But the greater the success the fun- planned the number and spacing of children. damentalists had in influencing the political Fertility rates were halved as the number of structures, the greater the gap between the births per woman fell from 4 to 1.9 between culture of official Ireland and the lived re- 1960 and 2000. More and more women left ality of working class life. When it became unhappy marriages and had children born impossible to criminalise the use of contra- outside of marriage. The age of marriage in- ceptives, the Fianna Fáil leader Haughey creased and no longer came to be regarded bowed to fundamentalist pressure and made as the only ‘legitimate’ framework for sex- them only available for ‘bona fide’ family ual relations. In 1980, the average age of purposes. It served only to make a mock- marriage for the bride was 24 but by 2005 ery of the political establishment and create this had risen to 30. The proportion of first an abundance of satirical material. births outside marriage grew from 15 per- At the heart of these changes was the cent in 1980 to 44 percent in 2005. The position of working women. Traditionally number of abortions to women with an Irish Ireland had one of the lowest numbers of address grew from 261 in 1970 to 6,672 by married women in the paid workforce, sec- 2001.14 Despite the bans on abortion, Irish ond only to Greece in the EU. However, the women in the age group 18 to 23 are having multi-nationals who spearheaded industrial- the same number of abortions as women in isation favoured a disproportionate employ- other countries. The difference is that they ment of women. Between 1971 and 1991 had to travel to Britain. These dry but quite the number of economically active women dramatic figures indicate that the lived ex- increased by 50 percent while the number of perience of tens of thousands of Irish women men increased by 10 percent.12 With eco- put them into direct conflict with the values nomic independence came a greater desire of catholic Ireland. for free expression of sexuality and control First came the practice, and then came of childbirth. the anger. Initially, the changes occurred Writing in 1994, for example, Dympna at a subterranean level and they found lit- McLoughlin suggests that there were three tle expression at a political or institutional main characteristics of the traditional ‘re- level. The conservative parties continued to spectable Irish woman’ (1) an overwhelm- warn against a ‘permissive society’ and the ing desire to marry and to remain faith- liberal elements within the elite expressed 11E O Reilly, Masterminds of the Right, Dublin: Attic Press, 1997 12B. Walsh, Labour Force Participation and the Feminisation of the Labour Force (Dublin 1992) 13Cited in Tom Inglis, Origins and legacies of Irish Prudery: Sexuality and Socila Control in Modern Ireland, Eire- Ireland Vol 40 No3-4, 2005, pp. 9-37 14A. Punch. ‘Marriage, Fertility and Family in Ireland – a Statistical Perspective’ Journal of the Staticial and Socioal Inquiry Society of Ireland Vol. XXXV1

6 themselves in the most cautious way pos- the Fianna Fáil Justice Minister Maire Ge- sible. But the lack of an organised expres- oghan Quinn brought in a decriminalisation sion only made spontaneous explosions more measure that was more liberal than that of likely. The first came in 1992, when tens of Britain. Later in 2015, Ireland became the thousands mobilised to demand that a 14 first country in the world to introduce gay year old rape victim be given the right to marriage by popular plebiscite. This was in travel to Britain for an abortion. The ban marked contrast to the situation in the more had been imposed by an attorney general secular France where huge mobilisations by who was a member of the Catholic Marriage the Catholic Church and the fascists led the Advisory Board. It was a glaring example official right to oppose the move. It is a of how the fundamentalists tried to use their powerful illustration of how one should not institutional positions to stop the tide of lib- hold a mechanical view of ‘enlightenment’ eralism - and how it backfired so spectacu- progress. The growing anger that drove the larly. very late break from Catholic values in Ire- Since then the mobilisations have grown land brought about a more radical response in organisation and expression. In 1983, for than that in more liberal France. The para- example, less than 200 people marched in dox can only be explained by a dynamic that a gay rights demonstration after a homo- comes with mobilisations from below. phobic murder in Fairview Park. Within two decades, tens of thousands were par- Skin deep liberals ticipating in the annual gay pride event. As the mobilisations increased, so too did The central problem for the political es- the level of anger. Why, many asked, had tablishment is that they must try to re- the Catholic Church a right to interfere in late to the new realities of Irish society - our personal lives? This question dovetailed while maintaining most of the power struc- with an emerging neoliberal discourse of in- tures that have served them well for decades. dividual choice. But at a deeper level, it They will accept a degree of liberalisation brought greater numbers into conflict with but they are unwilling to dismantle struc- the power structures of society. Further tures that have promoted obedience and def- questions began to be asked which were erence. Thus they will talk about individual never even formulated before. Why had choice and a ‘tolerant modern Ireland’ but the Catholic Church a right to exclude chil- they will not take measures that their coun- dren without a baptismal certificate from terparts took in other countries more than schools? Why do young teenagers have to a century ago. To put matters more sim- attend religion classes in secondary schools ply, they will talk liberal but leave Bishops if they do not want to? What right does the in control of large areas of Irish social life. Catholic Church have to impose its ethics on The contradictions of this skin deep lib- medical procedures in hospital? eralism are most apparent in the case of Leo Varadkar, whom the international press In more recent years, the political elite have labelled Ireland’s first gay Taoiseach. have been forced to respond to this grow- In 2009, the same Varadkar expressed his ing anger and have sought to incorporate it distaste for a Civil Partnership Bill in the within a discourse of ‘personal choice’. This following terms has been most evident on the issue of gay rights. In 1988, for example, the European Two men cannot have a child, Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland two women cannot have a was in breach of human rights for crimi- child. . . That is a fact, nobody nalising homosexuality. In the aftermath of can deny. Every child has a the huge 1992 mobilisations on the X case, right to a mother and father, and

7 as much as possible, the state as a product of the 1916 rebellion or the should try and vindicate that Irish Revolution that followed in its wake. right, and that the right of a It owes far more to the Free State victory child to have a mother and father in the Irish Civil War of 1922. This marked is much more important than the the end of a radical turbulent period where right of two men, or two women, the poorest elements of Irish society tried to have a family. to forward their aspirations. The victory of the Free State forces - amply supplied However as anger with the Catholic with guns and credit from their former im- Church grew and radical dynamic behind perial masters - heralded a counter revolu- the demand that Ireland liberalises in- tion. The Catholic upper professional class creased, Varadkar changed his tune. He which were initially reluctant to lead a fight came out as openly gay and campaigned for Irish freedom took over the helm of the for gay marriage in the name of individ- state. The key figure who articulated their ual freedom. But while many young peo- class perspective was Kevin O’Higgins. He ple were delighted to see the political es- saw the period of revolution as one where tablishment embrace some of their concerns, the moral fabric of society was torn apart they framed the issue in somewhat different and was determined to re-mend it. He de- terms to Varadkar. They saw it as an issue spised the ‘attitude of protest, the attitude of equality - Marriage Equality, for a start of negation, the attitude sometimes of sheer but more equality in Irish society. At an wantonness and waywardness and destruc- LGBT Noise demonstration before the ref- tiveness which... has been to a large extent erendum many speakers drew the links be- a traditional attitude on behalf of the Irish tween the LGBTQ demand for equality and people.’15 He was determined to cure the the rights of refugees to equality of treat- patient and establish respect for ‘the rule of ment; the rights of transgender people to be law.’ To do so, he surrounded himself in the recognised, the rights of women to gain con- cabinet with ex-Clongowes boys and mem- trol over their bodies. Leo Varadkar may bers of the Catholic upper professional class have monetarily caught up with the new who barely concealed their contempt for a mood, but the movement was going far be- lawless but land hungry peasantry. By 1926, yond Leo’s liberalism. there were more ex-Clongowes boys in the To understand why the Irish elite have cabinet than veterans of the 1916 Rising. difficulties dealing with the new realities of Irish society, we need to explore the role that The key institution they used to con- the Catholic Church played - and still plays trol Irish society was the hierarchy of the - in upholding capitalist privilege. In other Catholic Church. The Catholic bishops words, we need to move beyond the familiar - backed the Treaty and as soon as news of and absolutely correct - story of Catholicism it became public, six Catholic prelates is- and sexual repression which has been well sued a statement supporting it, with one aired in literature and political discourse. Bishop claiming that ‘the men who made We need to examine its role as a mechanism the treaty would be immortal.’G.G. Corone, of wider social control and order. The Catholic Church in the Irish Civil War, Madrid: Cultiva Communicacion, 2009, Keeping the mob in line p.22-3. Bishop Colohan summed up the rea- sons, stating that ‘Christ himself lived in a Contrary to its own mythology, the 26 country suffering foreign domination. But county Irish State should not be described he did not counsel the Jews to have recourse 15J. Knirck. Afterimage of the revolution: Cumann na nGaedheal and Irish Politics, 1922–1932 Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014, p. 43.

8 to arms, to seize money and goods, to de- the faithful... whenever political or social stroy public property’16. The Bishops ex- or economic doctrines are at variance with communicated republicans who opposed the the Divine Law.’18 McQuaid bombarded de treaty but said little about the Free State Valera with letters ranging from instructions policy of reprisal executions. Once the Civil about promoting Catholic medical interests, War was won, they gave full backing to to calls for more censorship, to offering ad- O’Higgins campaign to restore order. vice on how to handle strike. The partner- The new Free State elite offered its pop- ship of Fianna Fáil and the Bishops set the ulation one compensation - a strict Catholic framework for one of the most conservative morality. This became the spiritual anti- societies in the world. depressant that offered consolation for the The Catholic Bishops helped to uphold dashed hope of the revolutionary years. the capitalist order in four main ways. Even if no improvement in living conditions First, they promoted a strict adherence resulted from their heroic struggles, the peo- to family values and regulation of sexual- ple could console themselves that they were ity. Historically, these are key themes of the the most Catholic country in the world. The rhetorical toolkit of the Right. Family val- more Catholic and respectful you were of the ues imply a strict authoritarianism whereby priests, the more you asserted your victory the father figure controls the family and the over the Brits. This was linked to a roman- mother is reduced to role of emotional sup- ticisation of rural life because, as Curtis put porter. Just as the father runs the family, it, there was a conviction that ‘life on a small so too does the boss run the factory and the Irish farm represented a purity and decency bishop runs the church. This authoritarian of life that set Ireland apart from more com- structure is bolstered by the regular target- mercial societies that surrounded them’.17 ing of transgressors. After all, how are com- Even if there were few jobs and thousands plex and messy human emotions to be disci- had to emigrate, Ireland could keep clear plined if not through shame inducing gossip of the moral ‘filth’ of British urban life. It or public humiliation? Fear and shame are could be both self-sufficient and avoid the also powerful ways of getting people to know ‘materialism’ and immorality of modern life. their place - to accept their lot as God given. As the identification of Catholicism with The Irish Catholic focus on sexuality re- Irishness intensified, Fianna Fáil asserted flected its own institutional base. The core that they were more Irish and, therefore, of the priesthood was drawn from the prop- even more Catholic. When they came to erty owning farmers of the countryside. Out power in 1932, they not only continued using of the 429 students, for example, who en- the Catholic hierarchy to control the popu- tered the Maynooth seminary between 1956 lation but extended it further. The consti- and 1960, a massive 72.5 percent came from tution of 1937 laid down the broad parame- the ‘open countryside’ or small towns and ters for a Catholic State for a Catholic peo- villages.19 These strata had imbibed the ple. It was accompanied by a shadow theoc- strict repression of sexuality from the farm- racy whereby proposed legislation was first ing class and transmitted it to the cities. filtered through the partnership of de Valera The farmers were terrified of ‘illegitimate’ and John Charles McQuaid, the Archbishop births and the break-up of marriages lest of Dublin. McQuaid believed that that these affect ownership of the farms. Re- the Bishops had a ‘divine right to guide pressing sexuality became their obsession 16ibid. p 19 17Curtis, A Challenge to Democracy, p. 113. 18J. Cooney, John Charles McQuaid: Ruler of Catholic Ireland, Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1999 p. 70-71. 19T. Garvin, Preventing the Future; Why Was Ireland so poor for so long? Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2004, p. 36.

9 and the priests became the agents of con- possibility for more critical thinking. Sci- trol. The Catholic Church had the institu- ence was reduced to a minimal subject and tional resources to push a message of ‘purity’ more emphasis was placed on the facts or sci- and ‘modesty’ as it controlled the schools ence rather than training in scientific meth- and hospitals. It had constructed so many ods. This deep culture of obedience was seen churches that by 1997 there was one church as highly productive for both state and reli- for every 1,092 Catholics.20 It also had a gious authorities. huge army of priests who could visit - and The agreement was that the clergy would morally inspect - family homes. A national instil general obedience in school children survey in 1973-4, found that nearly half of and in return get to indoctrinate them in homes had been visited by a priest in the Catholic teaching. It was certainly under- previous six months.21 For the minority stood by de Valera that the church and the of women who were disobedient there were state were working together to have the pop- always the church-run Mother and Babies ulation obey both its temporal and spiritual homes and the Magdalene laundries. leaders. After a minor dispute with one of Second, the Bishops promoted a wider the Bishops, de Valera wrote to the Papal culture of obedience. In his first pastoral Nuncio urging him to remind the clergy to letter in 1941, McQuaid stated that parents must regard their children as souls to be pre- secure their active co-operation pared for the carrying of the cross of Christ. in inculcating in the people that ‘It will be impossible to train youth to the respect for lawful authority with- maturity of Christian virtue unless from in- out which the continuance in fancy the habit of obedience has become, their country of a Christian so to speak, an instinct.’22 Control of the church and a Christian state schools was the main mechanism for achiev- would soon become impossible.23 ing this and so corporal punishment and rote learning became the norm. Corporal This was the essence of the Fianna Fáil- punishment was a brutalised form of repres- Catholic church project. It was case of ren- sion used widely by orders like the Christian dering unto Caesar and unto the clergy a Brothers. Its primary purpose was to instil respect and a subservience which were mu- unquestioning obedience. Rote learning was tually beneficial to both. - and still is endemic - in Irish education. Thirdly, the Catholic Church was the ‘Learning off by heart’ became a method main ideological opponent of social rights. that replaced in depth understanding. It The primary argument used was the princi- dovetailed neatly with the ethos of learning ple of subsidiarity. This suggested that the off one’s Catechism. Instead of children ask- state should only delegate to itself functions ing a subversive question such as ‘Who Made which could not otherwise be performed by God’ they learnt ‘off by heart’ that ‘God groups in civil society. These civil society made the World’. By instilling simple easy groups were in turn permeated by Catholic responses in the brains of the young, the principles. The Papal encyclical Quadra- Bishops thought that adherence to Catholi- gesimo Anno put it succinctly, ‘social char- cism would be guaranteed forever. Subjects ity ... ought to be as the soul of this or- such as philosophy or sociology were ex- der, an order which public authority ought cluded from Irish schools as they opened the to be ever ready effectively to protect and 20T. Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland, Dublin: Uni- versity College Dublin Press, 1998, p. 40. 21ibid. p. 48 22Cooney, John Charles McQuaid, p. 133 23De Valera to Papal Nuncio, 9 July 1933, in De Valera Papers, File 1280/1, UCD archives.

10 defend’.24 This principle was rigorously ap- health measures would ‘constitute a ready- plied in Ireland and an unholy alliance was made instrument for future totalitarian ag- formed between the mandarins of the De- gression’.26 The hysteria about state control partment of Finance and the Catholic hier- and dictatorship was only a cover to allow archy to discourage social spending. Under the Bishops work with the Irish Medical Or- McQuaid’s leadership, an extensive charity ganisation to create a two tier medical sys- and voluntary social care network was estab- tem which protects privilege and the doc- lished. Instead of developing a welfare state, tors’ lucrative private practice. It is a sys- the state encouraged voluntary Catholic or- tem that works against the poor to this very ganisations to develop a safety net. J.J. day. McElligot, the secretary of the Department Fourth, the Catholic hierarchy was the of Finance, spelled out the practical impli- main bulwark against any political shift to cations of the principle of subsidiarity. the left. Anti-communism was an ideology The principle has not been gen- that was disseminated widely and its fo- erally accepted that the state cus was not simply any expression of sup- has responsibility for the relief port for Stalin’s Russia. Anti-communism of poverty in all its degrees - was the catch-all defence against any vari- the principle underlying any so- ant of left wing ideas. The modern College cial measures undertaken by the of Industrial Relations, for example, is a re- state in this country up to the named version of the Catholic Workers Col- present is that the state’s re- lege which was set up by the Jesuits in 1951 sponsibility is limited to the re- with the explicit aim of training a genera- lief of destitution i.e. extreme tion of union leaders in Catholic social teach- cases where employment and the ing as against ‘communism’. In 1968, when minimum necessities of existence the Labour Party swung to the left, Fianna is lacking.25 Fáil launched a red scare and its leader did a tour of convents and monasteries. Right This ideological principle was not always into the 1980s, left wing TDs such as Michael upheld because the political elite were sub- D Higgins - the current President- and Jim ject to pressure to provide some social pro- Kemmy were targeted as pro-abortionists in tection, especially after the Beveridge Re- the midst of a general election. port in Britain. Nevertheless the principle of subsidiarity created a framework by which All of these tasks that were undertaken social rights could be limited. by the Bishops played a valuable role in up- The proposal by Noel Browne to intro- holding the order of capitalist Ireland. An duce a Mother and Child scheme to provide institutional network was forged that linked free health care and children up to the age the political establishment to the Bishops, of sixteen illustrates succinctly how this oc- bosses and union leaders. Social Catholi- curred. As soon as Browne’s plans became cism functioned as a diffuse ideology that public, he was ordered to a meeting at Arch- permeated the whole of society. Even as it bishop McQuaid’s palace. A statement was started to weaken, it was also modernised read that claimed that ‘the right to provide and made more institutionally secure. In- for the health of children belongs to parents, stead of charity for the deserving poor, the not to the state’. He was told that the Bish- state changed the rhetoric during the social ops would oppose him because and his free partnership years, for example, and began to 24Quadragesimo Anno w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_ 19310515_quadragesimo-anno.html 25J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989 p.281 26Cooney, John Charles McQuaid, p.258

11 speak of the ‘excluded’. The category was a market and who, rhetorically, can embrace passive one and there were no active agents a certain libertarianism based on freedom of who did the excluding. But it was a useful choice. On the other hand, there are the rhetorical device to attack ‘selfish’ and ‘sec- neo-conservatives who value community and tional’ workers who wanted high pay rises. tradition. Broadly, speaking at this current It was suggested repeatedly that they should juncture, most of the Irish elite lean towards makes sacrifices so that the ‘excluded’ could the neoliberal wing. But the two streams are be supported. Similarly, as the state with- not mutually exclusive. drew from building council housing, it spoke Even a pure market based society needs of the need for a ‘social mix’ and rhetorically some mechanisms for promoting order and stigmatised large council estates as hotbeds social control. In other countries, the main- of social problems. Voluntary housing asso- stream media replaces church as the key fun- ciations were promoted instead and in many nel for bourgeois ideas. Instead of sermons cases they were linked to religious bodies. from pulpits every Sunday, there is a daily Social Catholicism was most concen- diet of praise for ‘competitiveness’ and abuse trated among the grassroots political ac- directed at a ‘loony left’. The more the sys- tivists who worked for Fianna Fáil and Fine tem comes under pressure, the more the pre- Gael. Overwhelmingly, these were the ‘re- tence of balance and impartiality is dropped. spectable’ people who forged close relation- In many cases, the mass media functions as ship with their parish priests. Involvement an effective tool for dividing the population in a party branch or cumman was always a and directing anger away from the ruling help to getting a position as judge or town class onto different categories of scapegoats. planner or school principal. So too was a However, there is an important weakness reference from the local priest. Once they from an ideological point of view. Essen- took up their new position, the occupants tially, the mass media functions as a bridge learnt that there were ways of dealing with between the ruling class and atomised in- troublemakers with a ‘few quiet words’. The dividuals. It is most influential when the priest might make a phone call or put in mass of people lead private lives and there a request and the matter would be sorted is little sustained organised opposition. But out, without any public mention. Similarly, when there is a huge movement - as oc- politicians were kept informed of key school curred during the water charges protests - events, funerals or social gatherings organ- the propaganda and smears are less effective. ised by the Church so they could make an Economic experts may appear on television appearance. If the Left saw the streets as to intone about ‘efficiencies’ but they lack their prime arena for mobilisation, the Right a network that can demoralise and divide. knew that there was an institutional network As Gramsci pointed out, the hegemony of available to bolster their support. the ruling class often rests on elements in civil society who disseminate the world view Outdated but useful of the bourgeois. Typically, this strata of society assume leadership positions and are Much of this is now outdated. A substantial ‘looked up to’. proportion of the elite have no desire to so- The dynamics of modern capitalism, cialise with, or seek the advice of, the Bish- however, tends to undermine the very struc- ops. But this is does not mean that they tures which link the mass of the people to wish to displace them in any radical way. the embedded elements who promote a bour- Typically, there are two streams to Right geois world view. Mass ‘apathy’ and declin- wing thought. On one hand there are the ing civic engagement become a feature of a neoliberals who are fervent believers in the society that becomes increasingly commod-

12 ified. As Chris Harman pointed out, leadership of Fine Gael, former TDs such as Billy Timmins and Terence Flanagan who The ‘functional intellectu- left to join Renua because of minor moves als’—the lawyers, teachers, to liberalise laws on abortion, indicated they priests, doctors—no longer play would be returning. No wonder. Varad- a key role in local opinion forma- kar has stated that he does not want Ire- tion. Advanced capitalism leads land’s strict constitutional abortion law to to a centralisation of ideological be removed entirely, as it would ‘let the Dáil power, to the atomisation of the and Seanad do whatever they like’.28 He is masses—with the crucial excep- quite explicit in defining his brand of right tion of workplace-based union wing politics as composed of ‘liberal, con- organisation—and to a weaken- servative.Christian -democratic ideals29 On ing of old political and cultural the other side of the fence, Fianna Fáil talks organisations.27 about ‘compassion’ and ‘understanding’ for women who have been raped and want an The Irish ruling class may not have read abortion. But when the party gave its TDs a Gramsci but they instinctively understand free vote on removing a 14 year jail sentence the need to combine control of the media for a woman who takes an abortion pill, just with the maintenance of support networks in three of its TDs voted in support. The Fi- civil society. In brief, they want to use both anna Fáil leader Micheál Martin could not traditional and modern methods of preserv- even give a commitment that even a woman ing order. They want to keep their power who was raped had a right to an abortion. base in civil society - alongside greater con- Here is a section from an excruciating radio trol by the mass media. They are glad that interview he recently did. Denis O’Brien has gained control of the pri- vate media - but the right wing politicians Interviewer: So (a woman will still attend funerals and promise peo- becomes pregnant after being ple they can get them houses. RTE will use raped by her father) and you economists as experts who reduce political don’t see that as a simple yes or choice to the necessities of the market - but no? Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to keep the Micheál Martin: Well I don’t support networks that are permeated with actually, it’s not a simple ‘yes social Catholicism. They will create space or no’, that depends on a num- for a liberal more urban wing - but they are ber of issues. I know people to- not going to demoralise their rural conserva- day who are alive through their tives. In brief, they combine the two streams mother being raped. In one par- of right wing thought - a neoliberal enthu- ticular case she was the outcome siasm for the market and a neo-conservative of that and she gets very angry embrace of tradition. when people suggest she should This effort to combine skin deep liber- never have had a life. alism with the maintenance of a space for social Catholicism explains the current re- This suggests that the political estab- sponses of the right wing parties. Varad- lishment will not take any radical measures kar may be hailed as Ireland’s first gay to uproot the structures of rule that have Taoiseach - but as soon as he took up the served - and still help to serve - them so 27C. Harman, Gramsci versus EuroCommunism isj.org.uk/gramsci-versus-eurocommunism/ 28‘Health Minister Leo Varadkar at odds with James o Reilly over Abortion vote’, Irish Examiner 30 November 2015 29‘No More Mr Nice guy’, Hot Press Interview 19 May 2010

13 well. They will not demoralise their support the X case and after repeated attempts to base by giving women a legal right to abor- dodge the issue, the Fine Gael-Labour gov- tion; they will not push the Catholic Church ernment finally came up with a Protection out of control of the schools and hospitals; of Life in Pregnancy Act. It was one of they will continue to allow Catholic influ- the most restrictive measures in the world. enced organisations control over social care. Abortion would only be available when a In brief, they will never carry out measures woman’s life was in danger, including that that the French bourgeoisie carried out over potentially caused by suicide. But even in a hundred years ago. the latter case, the woman would have to This is what explains their hesitant re- be subjected to an examination by two psy- sponses on most of the key battle lines in chiatrists and an obstetrician. But even Irish society in recent years.. After the when a woman said she was suicidal, she Catholic Church was exposed for paedophile faced the danger of being detained under abuse, a Fianna Fáil Minister, Michael the Mental Health Act by one of these psy- Woods, did an indemnity deal which costs chiatrists. This is -precisely what occurred the Church just e128 million. Even though when an adolescent girl became pregnant. compensation to the victims eventually ran Commenting on the incident, the ‘Liberal- to e1.5 billion, neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine conservative, Christian Democract’, Varad- Gael will tear up the deal. When he took up kar said that ‘decisions on terminations were office, the Labour Party Minister for Educa- a matter for doctors not politicians’. Nor, it tion, Rory Quinn, questioned the amount of appears, for the girl concerned. time spent on teaching religion in primary schools. He spoke of transferring 50 per- The left cent of these schools from religious patron- age to a different ownership model. Yet just Given these contradictions, only the gen- a handful of schools were transferred and uine radical left, Solidarity- PBP and some no restriction was placed on the time spent of the left independents have the courage on teaching religion. Subsequently, both Fi- and principles to fight Church control. anna Fáil and Fine Gael voted down a bill to The Solidarity-People Before Profit group- outlaw discrimination against non-Catholic ing that has taken a firm stance on the key children in admittance to primary schools - issues. 90 percent of whom are controlled by the The Labour Party is trying to re-position Catholic Church. There was outrage when itself as a more secular formation. But its St Vincent’s Hospital said that its Catholic own record hangs around its neck like an al- ethics precluded it carrying out vasectomies batross. It was after all the Labour Party, - but, again, nothing was done to stop ‘ethics who championed the Protection of the Life bodies’ in Catholic owned hospitals banning in Pregnancy Act, as the only ‘realistic’ op- some medical procedures. It took a massive tion in promoting abortion reform. While in display of ‘people power’ to prevent the Sis- government, they voted against the calling ters of Charity effectively controlling a new of a referendum on the issue, arguing that it National Maternity Hospital. Without such would be too divisive. a display of anger, Fine Gael would have Sinn Féin presents itself as a ‘progressive happily handed over managerial responsibil- party’ but is equally determined to maintain ity to the nuns. its green nationalist base. As a result, it will All the hesitation and contradiction in not stray too far beyond the strictures of the Ireland’s skin deep liberalism comes to the bishops. Its position on abortion is that it fore on the issue of abortion. More than will only allow for it in three cases - that twenty years after the huge mobilisations on of rape, fatal foetal abnormality, or when a

14 woman’s life is in danger. In other words, a that flow from it can force the political es- woman must be presented as a victim before tablishment to remove this terrible article. she gains a right to abortion. It cannot, in The genuine left will also be the key force the Sinn Féin view, be a matter of choice - in pushing for the full separation of church which they dismiss as ‘abortion on demand’. and state. Schools and hospitals which rely The genuine left on the other hand has on public money must be taken out of church been to the fore in demanding the removal of control and vested in democratic public con- the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitu- trol. The pattern of medical procedures be- tion. They are opposed to replacing it with ing debated through a lens of Catholic the- another restrictive measure that will prevent ology must end. Public money to promote democratic discussion on abortion, long into the teaching of any one religion must cease. the future. None of this impinges on the democratic Once the constitution is replaced, right of any grouping to practice or pro- Solidarity-People Before Profit will press for mote their religious views. School facilities, the legalisation of free, safe and legal abor- for example, should be made available to lo- tion. These changes will not occur, how- cal communities after their hours of instruc- ever, simply by quiet lobbying behind the tion end. In practice, political groups, local scenes. It will certainly not come by appeal- sports associations, and religious groupings ing to Fine Gael mavericks like Kate 0’Con- should have a right of access to school hall nell, TD, in the hope that they can bring to engage in whatever type of discussion or the conservative backwoods men with her. ceremony they like. O’Connell spoke against a Dail motion to re- peal the Eighth Amendment because it orig- None of this implies a Richard Dawkins’s inated from the left. She said there were type snobbery about religion. Religious be- ‘people on her side of the political spectrum lief is not simply the result of ignorance and who would agree with repealing the Eighth it is not the primary cause of violence or but they were conflicted that by supporting intolerance in the world. How and why so the bill, they might be guilty of endorsing many people adhere to a belief in God and the other policies and activities of the ex- an afterlife is not the subject of this article1. treme left.’30 The removal of the 8th Amend- Our focus is simply the democratic right not ment will come about through a huge move- to have religion imposed on people by their ment of ‘people power’. Only the fear of such state. That right is now being asserted by a movement and the political consequences the real left.

30‘Government Eight Amendment motion described as ‘disgraceful manouevre” RTE News 26 October 2016 rte.ie/news/2016/1025/826607-eighth-amendment/ For Marx’s profound analysis of the roots of religion see Introduction to A Contribution to a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right marxists.org/ archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm Also useful are Paul Siegel, The Meek and the Mil- itant, 1986 and John Molyneux, ‘More than Opium’ International Socialism 119, isj.org.uk/more-than- opium-marxism-and-religion/.

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