Sobering thought
The referendum in Ireland to end the constitutional ban on abortion produced a clear majority (66 percent) in favour of change. Scenes of elation among the many supporters of reform were seen in Ireland and elsewhere once the result was known. A change in the law with regard to abortion in Ireland is expected within the next year.
However, it is sobering to consider how the similar referendum on divorce there in 1996 has been realised in practice. Ireland scrapped liberal UK divorce laws in 1922 when it got its independence and imposed a Catholic policy instead. For the following 70 years divorce became practically impossible. Other countries accepted the simple fact that some marriages fail and divorce helps people escape from painful and distressing situations. But Ireland ignored the people trapped in failed marriages and instead enshrined its Catholic ban in the constitution.
It took a referendum in 1995 to change the constitution and permit divorce. However, what has emerged is a process which takes at least four years, involves the courts and incurs considerable legal fees. Hence the low rate of divorce in Ireland – the process is so costly and gruelling that only the most desperate undertake it. It seems there is a Catholic cultural bias in Ireland which resists any liberal legislation. Which is hardly surprising when one considers the dominant role of the Catholic church in the education system there.
The irony is that, having turned itself into a Catholic state, the South of Ireland resented the fact that the Protestant North preferred to ally itself with the UK. The North had even warned that “Home Rule is Rome Rule” prior to 1922 and subsequent events proved it right. Far from trying to win over the North and make unification an attractive prospect, the South declared itself a Catholic state and laid claim to the territory of the North. The terrorist campaigns of the IRA which tried to drive the North into a united Ireland by brute force and cost thousands of people their lives, were the grim consequence of those foolish policies. Ireland is slowly emerging as a modern secular state, but the tragic blunders which created the situation from which it is now trying to escape should be a warning to others.
LES REID Morton Street, Edinburgh