Yet another victory for the Catholic Taliban

Those old biddies who have controlled our faith and morals in this country for generations have never gone away. While we have moved on in many respects, those holy Marys, ably assisted by a lot of pietistic Paddys, still have a stranglehold on our politicians.

The rest of the civilised world accepts that there are circumstances where abortion might be the best answer. Not in Ireland, though. Abortion is taboo even in cases of rape and incest and where the life and the health of the mother are at risk.

 

Let nobody tell me that a day or a week-old foetus is as important or has an equal right to life as that of a mature woman. I have never accepted that and I never will. I speak to politicians on a fairly regular basis and I never hear them say in private that they would oppose abortion in all circumstances, or that abortion is always wrong. What they might say in public is a different matter.

It is a long time since we did away with the ‘special position’ of the Catholic Church in the Constitution but we might as well have held on to it because it does not seem to have made that much of a difference in the real world.

I find it very hard to disagree with the views of Sir Edward Carson and his followers around 100 years ago when they predicted that Home Rule would mean Rome Rule. They were proved right. Although they might have been wrong in everything else they said.

Just as Stormont, in the words of the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, was a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people, so Dáil Éireann became a Catholic Parliament for a Catholic people.

We banned and burned outstanding works of literature written by Irish and foreign authors because they did not conform to the ethos of Catholic Ireland. We hounded excellent teachers out of schools here because we did not deem them to be good Catholics or fit to teach our children. We forbade the sale of artificial contraceptives in the State because such devices went against the natural order of things.

We reluctantly allowed for divorce less than two decades ago and that small step forward would not have been taken but for the fact that it rained heavily in Donegal and Mayo on the day in question and the old biddies stayed at home from the polling stations. At the behest of the clergy, we brought in a dance halls’ act to stop people holding house dances and encourage them to support the local parochial hall run by the parish priest.

We still have one law for those who go to mass on Sunday and another for those who might not. Traffic wardens are afraid to put illegal parking tickets on the windscreens of those who park their cars any which way in the vicinity of the local church on Saturday evening or Sunday morning during mass.

I didn’t even mention the control that the Caholic Church still holds over the education system in this Republic.

However, I think I’d prefer the belt of a crozier any day to the tongue lashing you might get from some of those old biddies that I know.

No wonder Fine Gael TDs are running for cover up and down the country. I would like to see our politicians display a little bit of courage for once but the idea of a courageous politician is a contradiction in terms.

There was a very short time in the beginning when Fianna Fáil did appear to be the party with the guts to stand up to the bishops. But that was not long after many of those in Fianna Fáil had been excommunicated by the same bishops and some years before the new Constitution had been drafted, with the help and guidance of the Archbishop of Dublin.

We boasted that the Republic of Ireland was not a sectarian state like the Protestant Six Counties. Sure didn’t we elect two protestant presidents over the Republic and Jewish lord mayors over Dublin and Cork.  
However, presidents and lord mayors are merely figureheads. The reality on the ground was that this part of the island of Ireland was ruled from Maynooth. Are there many people around today who remember the boycott of Protestants in Fethard-on-Sea or the treatment of Jehovah Witnesses in East Clare?

I believe that a lot of things have changed since those dark days. We have moved on since the 1983 Amendment, which the people thought put a Constitutional ban on abortion. I believe a majority of the people would now allow abortion in certain circumstances, such as a threat to the life of the mother, including a threat of suicide and even in cases of rape and incest. It might be no harm to put that issue to the people once more.

I say these things as a person who is pro-life. As a matter of fact, I don’t know anybody who is not pro-life. I resent those people who are opposed to abortion in all cases, calling themselves pro-life as if the rest of us were pro-death.

If they are so opposed to abortion why don’t they mount a campaign to stop all those women from going to England every year for an abortion? Do they think it is alright for Irishwomen to have abortions in England but not alright to have their pregnancies terminated here at home?

They should cop themselves on.

The Protection of Life in Pregnancy Bill should really be called the Protection of Life in the Coalition Bill. It does more to keep both parties in Government together than it does for the problem of women with unwanted pregnancies.

It probably gives more clarity to the law following the X case than existed for the last 21 years but it is going to make very little difference, in reality. Women with unwanted pregnancy will continue to travel to England for abortions.

Another victory for the Catholic Taliban in Ireland.