THE two most momentous changes in Ireland this century have been the end of British rule in the 26 counties, and the end of Catholic rule in the 32 counties.
The former has been dealt with in books, plays, novels and films without number. The latter has been dealt with ad infinitum in newspapers, and on radio and television. Historians, too, have added their tuppence hapennyworth, but generally in the context of wider histories.
However, very little has come our way which traces specifically how and why Catholic influence over the lives of Irish people has declined so drastically in this century. That situation has now been redressed with Mary Kenny's Goodbye to Catholic Ireland, an extremely readable social history which takes us from the fall of Parnell to the rise of "New Ireland" and the lifting of the ban on divorce.
The book is arranged thematically as well as chronologically. The first chapter, "Catholic Ireland in the Celtic Dawn", takes us back to the Gaelic revival and reminds us that this is not the first "New Ireland" we have seen. Dublin at the turn of the century was bursting with energy and creativity, perhaps more so even than today, and it would seem that this creativity was able to co exist with an all pervasive Catholic Church. It is good to be reminded of this because there is a common enough belief that the religious impulse is in some way the enemy of the artistic impulse. It can be, but sometimes they feed off one another,
The early chapters of Goodbye to Catholic Ireland are the most interesting, if only because much of what comes later is so familiar to us. Chapter two, "Power and Faith", tells us of the powerful alliance which once existed between the clergy and the women of Ireland. It is hard to believe now that there was a time when Catholicism was considered a feminine, religion. Critics such as W.E.H. Lecky could write of it: "Catholicism commonly softens, while Protestantism strengthens, the character; but the softness of the first often degenerates into weakness, and the strength of the second into hardness." Lord Salisbury for his part once described Catholicism as "perfectly suitable for peasants and women". It is useful to place within its historical context the very modern charge that Catholicism is "patriarchal".
In fact, one of the strengths of this book is that it is written with a strong feel for the essential femininity of Catholicism. This comes through time and again.
While Goodbye to Catholic Ireland is sympathetic to Catholicism, it is rarely polemical. It never bludgeons where gentle persuasion will do instead. For example, it gently persuades us that "The least plausible charge against Catholicism is that it was insular narrow minded, yes, but insular in the sense of being nationally inward looking, not at all." Mary Kenny then goes on to recall the full extent of Ireland's "spiritual empire".
The book is a bracing challenge to the simplistic presentation of Catholic Ireland as a dark, oppressive and malevolent place. As always, the reality is far more complex than this. If the book has a theme, it is that, as George Bernard Shaw once said, "In Ireland, the people is the Church, and the Church is the people". In someways it is a rebuttal of Tim Pat Coogan's contention that the Catholic Church is Ireland's second year colonial power. For Mary Kenny, Catholism is as Irish as anything could ever be.
Goodbye to Catholic Ireland is well researched. Mary Kenny trawled through a century of Catholic and other literature. The bibliography is extensive. Doubtless, a professional historian could find fault, but this is not a work for academics; it is a popular history, and on that level it works very well indeed. It deserves a wide audience. All the great events which have touched on Church and society in the last hundred years are dealt with, if sometimes too briefly.
Someone, somewhere, will produce a multi volume work covering the same ground in more detail, but if they produce a more readable, more lively work than, Goodbye to Catholic Ireland, they will have done a very fine job indeed.