Church, State, and Society in Ireland since 1960

Introduction: A Stable Society

In 1967 The German Novelist Heinrich Böll described some of the changes that had occurred in the thirteen years since he first arrived in Ireland. While mourning the end of a society for which he had considerable affection, Böll noted two disquieting features of the new Ireland. One was the disappearance of nuns from the newspapers and the other was widespread discussion of "The Pill" (his emphasis). Böll was uncomfortable with this Ireland, but perceptively identified two aspects of Irish life that were to change dramatically over the next forty years: the nature of Irish sexuality and the role of the Catholic Church in Irish society.¹

The architect of this new Ireland, Seán Lemass, had retired as taoiseach the year before and was now a member of the "informal committee" established to review the constitution under the chairmanship of Fianna Fáil minister George Colley. While Lemass was not a self-conscious radical, his impatience with the failings of Irish society in the 1950s set the scene for the changes that began when he succeeded de Valera in 1959.² The Ireland described by Böll was conservative but was also in transition. Lemass was committed to economic development but could not predict (nor be aware of) the effect that policy changes would have on noneconomic spheres in the society. Even when he retired, relations between church and state seemed fixed and intimate. The society was homogeneous in ethnic and religious makeup while being remarkable for its intense religiosity. The evidence that exists suggests that weekly mass attendance reached 100 percent in rural areas and not far off that in cities.³

Criticisms of the intimate relationship between church and state were almost nonexistent within Ireland and were normally leveled by Unionists in Northern Ireland or from liberals in the United States or Britain.⁴ Consensus was the characteristic feature of nationalist opinion on religious matters, while debates concerning these took place within that consensus. The most important debate focused on the extent to which the Irish constitution reflected Catholic norms and values, not whether it should or should not. Jeremiah Newman, later bishop of Limerick, concluded in a major study of these questions that the Catholic Church had a special position in the Irish constitution and that "the State must take account of the official teaching of the Catholic Church."⁵

While opinion polls were not conducted in the 1950s, there is a detailed sociological study of Irish Catholicism undertaken in Dublin in the early 1960s by Bruce Biever, an American Jesuit. The central role of religion in daily life is highlighted, as is the key role played by the clergy in the lives of the community. Clerical influence is generally viewed in a positive light and 88 percent of responsdents agreed that the Catholic Church was "the greatest force for good in Ireland today." One member of the clergy emphasized why this was so:

I look at Ireland, and I ask myself: "who else could lead?" The politicians are new at the game; we have few economists, our professional people leave. Who stays? We do.⁶

Biever noted that better educated sections of the population were also far more critical of the church but that they remained unrepresentative of the general population. In so far as this section expressed liberal views, they were ignored by the church authorities. ⁷ There was a natural deference, reflected in the high status reserved for priests and nuns. Priests were considered "something special," a status given practical expression through their involvement in a wide range of social and political spheres. Nor did the church's involvement in education, medicine, or social life weaken this relationship. An intriguing aspect of the survey was widespread resistance to the idea that there could be a conflict between church and state in Ireland. However, when directly asked to choose sides in such a conflict, the overwhelming response was to favor the church over the state. The majority considered the church's role in Ireland to be legitimate and this was...