Mary always had attitude, but her views have changed

MARY McAleese branding the Catholic church ‘an empire of misogyny’ created exactly the stir she intended. While her problems with the Church are well known, her strident and combative tone was startling, particularly given how she cultivated such a flair for diplomacy as president.

She also raised eyebrows declaring that a Church hierarchy that is ‘homophobic and anti-abortion is not a Church of the future’. As a leading campaigner for same-sex rights for over 40 years, McAleese’s abhorrence of the Church’s stigmatising of homosexuality is to be expected. But since when has she become a supporter of abortion rights?

When did that Damascene conversion occur?

Don’t get me wrong, she’s entitled to a change of heart, but she was firmly in favour of the Pro-life Amendment in 1983.

When she ran for the presidency she said that despite the Eighth Amendment’s role in the X Case, she had ‘exactly the same commitment to the right to life of the unborn that I always have had’.

In a talk in Trinity College last year she had softened her position, stating she was in favour of ‘all such treatment that is necessary to save a woman’s life and health, including that which may result in the death of an unviable foetus’.

Interestingly though, she declined to express support for Repeal.

Her apparent upbraiding of the Church suggests that her view on abortion has maybe shifted again. (It’s uncertain: the Irish Catholic has reported that sources close to her say her abortion comment was ‘seriously misquoted’.)

Mary McAleese’s mainstream appeal made her one of the Campaign for Marriage Equality’s greatest assets.

Even if she’s not convinced about Repeal, her change in attitude since the 1980s is significant.