30.11.1995

Ireland says ‘yes’ to divorce

DESPITE the tiny majority - 0.4% - who voted ‘yes’ in last week’s divorce referendum, this was a big step forward for Irish society. The authority of the Catholic church has taken its biggest knock since the formal banning of divorce in 1937 alongside the official declaration of the Catholicism as the state religion.

The clergy have reigned supreme in a country where over 90% of the population consider themselves Catholic. Those who did not like it could leave. Connolly’s prediction in 1916 about the carnival of reaction which a divided Ireland would bring was chillingly accurate.

But the fall of the Church has been a long time coming. Recent years have seen the working class in the urban areas becoming increasingly distant from an intolerant and out of touch religion. Births outside marriage are among the highest in Europe at 20.3% - reflecting the number of young people rejecting the constraints of marriage you cannot get out of.

Women’s standing in society has also improved. In the words of one disgruntled Galway farmer interviewed during the media debate last week, “You can’t tie a woman to a chair in the kitchen and expect her to stay there for life. Those days are gone” (The Independent, November 24).

The biggest single problem for the church itself during the campaign was all the recent scandals surrounding it. A warning that those who divorce and remarry will not be entitled to receive any sacraments - even the traditional blessing before death - brought a wave of anger. The church obviously thought more of the paedophiles and abusers among its clergy than of ordinary people.

Such arrogance and hypocrisy coupled with the unwelcome intervention of the Pope and Mother Theresa brought a backlash against the ‘no’ campaign.

On the other hand of course the results of the referendum showed how backward large sections of Irish society still are. Although the rural areas did not vote as strongly ‘no’ as they did in 1986, 49.6% against divorce shows the quite remarkable hold the church still has on the population. This is especially in view of the fact that the government and all the opposition parties led a campaign for a ‘yes’ vote, as well as all sections of the media - even the traditionally conservative provincial papers. In fact the only papers to urge Ireland to vote ‘no’ were the British Times and Telegraph.

Discontent in Ireland runs deep. With staggering unemployment and a deeply unpopular government the working class is very angry. Let us hope this vote is a turning point in the fightback.

Anne Murphy