[Magdalen] Ireland

[Marion Thompson]

'Overwhelmingly RC Quebec' vanished in the 60's with the silent 
revolution.  However, Quebec is, without doubt, the most liberal (Not 
big L) and, if you like, most socialist province in the country.

Marion, a pilgrim

On 5/26/2015 12:01 PM, Jim Guthrie wrote:
>> 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
>