People power is shaping the new developing face of our Republic
IRELAND 2018 is a much different country to the one that those of us middle aged or older grew up in.
The scale of the change in Irish life during our lifetime has been astonishing and it is scenes like last Saturday’s celebrations in Dublin Castle following the announcement of the referendum result which bring home the scale of the change.
Divorce, Marriage Equality and now the repeal of the 8th amendment are all huge changes to the social fabric of the country and while there are campaigners who have given their life’s work to bringing about those changes it has all come about very rapidly, for those on the sidelines not active in any of the campaigns.
Ireland is a much more confident, open society than it was during years gone by. The repression and control of society by big institutions, be they church or state, is a relic of the past. People want control over their own lives, over their own bodies and they have the confidence and intelligence to stand up and assert that right.
In many respects the people are doing it for themselves and dragging the political class along with them.
Speaking on Saturday last, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the result as: ‘ The day Ireland stepped out from under the last of our shadows and into the light’.
We have indeed cast off the shackles of the past, very many of the shadows which haunted us have been dispersed, the light is reaching into those dark shadows and the dark corners of society are harder to find and to escape the bright light.
The biggest and ugliest of those shadows, that of political violence and terrorism cast an evil shadow on our society for decades and through a long and slow process, politics has replaced the violence and people are alive today because of that.
The evil shadows of abuse - sexual, physical and mental - which was hidden by the Church has been swept out and the horrific scandals have been laid bare and some of the perpetrators have paid for their crimes.
Child abuse will always be of concern but instances of institutional abuse have been tackled and exposed.
Elsewhere Irish society has tackled other social problems such as drink driving which is now a social taboo compared to years ago when it was acceptable behaviour to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking several pints.
We were the first country to introduce a smoking ban in workplaces and this was later rolled out across the globe.
The power and will of the people brought about the demand for last Saturday’s referendum, such as it did in the Marriage Equality and divorce before it.
People are telling the politicians what they want and what they don’t as in the case of water charges for example and the political class follows. That is as it should be in a well functioning democracy and bodes well for future.