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following independence the catholic church filled the oppressive void left by the british and brutalised ireland with an iron fist
we were not a complicit society
we were a fledgling state that traded an oppressive colonial regime for an oppressive theocracy
we were not a complicit society
we were a fledgling state that traded an oppressive colonial regime for an oppressive theocracy
the Churchâs iron grip on health and education is a direct result of the British departure. After independence the State, impoverished, couldnât afford to fund public health and education. The Church took advantage of a post-colonial reaction asserting Catholicism as a tenet
of Irish identity, distinctively Irish and not British. The perfect storm existed. A poor newly-independent state desperately searching to assert a new distinctive identity and its institutions firmly in control of an ostensibly generous benefactor.
Itâs reductive and victim-blaming to fault society as a whole as complicit. MĂĄirĂ©ad NĂ GhrĂĄda wrote An Triail in 1964 highlighting the Churchâs abuse of women and societyâs reaction. We were aware. The Irish people were forced into an abusive relationship with Church and State.
Complicity cannot coincide with such a disparity in power. Like a propaganda machine, the Church brainwashed society through its monopoly on education, culture and societal mores. The Governmentâs knee jerk reaction to invoke personal responsibility has never changed.
Greater forces were and are at play. A half-assed state apology isnât enough. The Church and State has to be forcibly separated once and for all. It particularly has no place meddling in the most formative institution of society, education. This only serves to repeat the cycle.
