[Magdalen] Ireland

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski (sms)]

I was in Ireland for the referendum, and the result, and it had a really
major impact, and will continue to have. In many ways Ireland grew up over
the past few weeks. One aspect of this is the way in which Irish Roman
Catholics, many of whom continue to see themselves as such, have now told
the church that they won’t just form opinions as instructed by clergy. And
that can only be good. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid
Martin, is a smart man and may well be the man to lead people forward in
the spirit of our times.

But the Roman Catholic church was not the only one to come out of this on
the wrong side of the argument. The Church of Ireland can also be justly
criticised, in part for making all sorts of opaque but basically
conservative statements, and in part for its response to the vote. The
Bishops issued a statement on Saturday that ended with:

'We would now sincerely urge a spirit of public generosity, both from
those for whom the result of the referendum represents triumph, and from
those for whom it signifies disaster.’

Their use of the words ‘signifies disaster’ is really not helpful - this
should not be a ‘disaster’ for anyone, and it shouldn’t be suggested to
people to see it that way.

Roger said:

>As regards this referendum I think part of the blame lies with a former
>Archbishop of Dublin, McQuaid.  He saw to it that bans on divorce and
>"artificial" contraception, as well as the definition of marriage, were
>written into the constitution when the republic was established.  As a
>result the bans could only be lifted after a referendum, which meant
>after significant public protest.

Contraception was not prohibited in the constitution, just under an Act of
Parliament that was repealed, though somewhat late in the day!

Roger is right however about the legacy of John Charles McQuaid.

>This is far more divisive, and happens later in the evolution of public
>opinion, than the legislature simply allowing these developments for
>those who want them.

I don’t think the referendum campaign was actually divisive. In fact, it
seems to have brought out a lot of positive aspects of popular debate, and
in fairness the ‘No’ campaigners reacted graciously to the result.

Ferdinand
>


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