[Magdalen] Ireland

[Jim Guthrie]

>When the Irish republic was established the overwhelming majoroty of the 
>population were practising Roman Catholics.  As has been onserved before

There's apparently an interesting parallel -- though it's hard to determine the 
difference among what the RC Bishops believe to be their membership, what people 
when polled believe to be members, and the actual number of people attending RC 
parishes. The Bishops know the difference between their official view and boots 
on the ground, but it is not in their political interests to proclaim that 
practicing RCs constitute about 20% of their claimed membership <g>.

That said, an fairly substantial majority of U.S. Rc's support same 
sex-marriage. That's the largest single cohort in favor (if you start with the 
Bishop's "Official" number).

Our Canadian friends may fill in the details, but I believe overwhelmingly RC 
Quebec was the first to pass gay rights laws and support same-sex marriage.

I won’t get into the European experience since church membership appears to be a 
pretend number in most countries <g>, but consider the counties that have 
supported same-sec marriage vs their supposed denominational preference.

So I suspect the Irish experience may not be so unique.

>This thread is about Ireland, not the USA.

I'm not so quick to dismiss the U.S. experience, given the relatively 
substantial money from the USA  (based upon US mythology on marriage) that went 
to Ireland to support the "No" campaign.  Now there may have been foreign 
interference on the "Yes" side as well, but I'm not aware of it.

Cheers,
Jim