2019-12-03 - In Defence of Ireland (Reply to cdmnky)
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Cdmnky writes [1] that they want to leave the USA, but are
conflicted on where to flee to. They consider Ireland, as a
majority english speaking country, but, and I quote:
"The notoriously majority Catholic Ireland"
The thing is, Ireland might be a majority catholic country on
paper, but the reality is quite, quite different. I can only speak
to my own experience here, but I've seen this country transformed
utterly in my time here.
When I came here, in 1991, homosexual activity was illegal. Noone
had been prosecuted for it in about twenty years, but the crime
remained on the books. This was declared illegal in the European
Court of Human Rights in 1988 - Norris v. Ireland - and after a
long fought campaign the law was finally anulled in 1993.
Ireland permitted civil partnerships for same-sex couples in 2010,
this was marriage-lite but without the full rights of a married
couple. A referendum on the issue in 2015 resulted in same-sex
marriage becoming a constitutionally guaranteed right in November
2015. That referendum was passed overwhelmingly, 62% voted yes, 37%
voted against.
When I came here, reproductive rights were subject to the Eighth
Amendement, which gave equal rights to the foetus as to the mother.
We fought, long and hard, against this from the moment I came to
this country.
In 1992, an attempt to limit the right to a termination on the
grounds of a risk of self-destruction was defeated in a referendum,
65%-35%. That same day, the right to access information on
terminations was put in the Constitution, 60%-40%, and the right to
travel to obtain a termination was supported, by a margin of
62%-38%.
This "Irish Solution to an Irish Problem" was, of course,
unsatisfactory, and the years from 1992-2018 were spent trying, in
various campaigns and various ways, to expand the right. Finally,
gloriously, in 2018 the "notoriously majority Catholic" Irish
voted, 67%-33%, to guarantee the reproductive rights of all women
by deleting the Eighth Amendment.
In 1991, discrimination against homosexuals and others was pretty
rife here. By the Equal Status Act, 2000, all discrimination on the
grounds of sexual orientation inemployment, vocational training,
advertising, collective agreements, the provision of goods and
services, and other publicly available opportunities was made
illegal, with harsh penalties for those who break that law.
The last vestiges of that Act, which allowed schools to terminate a
teacher's employment on the basis of sexual orientation where this
conflicted with the ethos of the school, were removed in 2015.
Gender identity, like everything else on the list, was another long
and difficult battle, but again the conflict is mostly complete.
Dr. Lydia Foy won the right to an amended Birth Certificate in
2007, and legislation for a gender recognition act was passed
September 2015. Transgender people can now obtain legal recognition
of their chosen identity without seeing a doctor or receiving any
medical treatment.
Not everything is perfect in all of this. There are still some
areas which desperately need work, such as the vast majority of
schools still identifying as Catholic. As an atheist of jewish
heritage, I have never been excluded from Irish society. My four
kids have all attended catholic schools, and the experience has
been overwhelmingly positive.
The people of this island nation seem to reflexively identify as
catholics, but i think this is more of a cultural identity than any
deep-seated religiosity. In 1991, 91% of the population identified
as catholic, only 2% as nonreligious. In 2016, 78% responded to the
census identifying as catholic, and 10% as nonreligious, the
largest non-catholic group.
When looking at how this might proceed in the future, you can look
at how people marry. In 2018 less than half of all marriage
ceremonies in Ireland were catholic, just 47%. Almost all of the
rest were civil ceremonies.
There are many reasons to argue that Ireland has a long road yet to
travel, income equality and equality of opportunity are two which
need considerable improvement. The country was devastated by the
Great Recession, and the recovery has been unequal in every sense
of the word. We need to change this, and I, and people like me,
continue to fight for an Ireland which treats all of its children
equally.
What the country isn't, however, is a Catholic Country.
[1]:
gopher://seedy.xyz/1/phlog/2019/12-03/
