Secularism in the Republic of Ireland
[5] Since the passing of a 1972 amendment with overwhelming public support, Ireland has had a secular constitution, although a high degree of religious influence over laws, education, and state business still persisted in the decades which followed, diminishing only in more recent times.
In an assessment of the Irish state's overall secularity, Humanists International gave Ireland a mixed score (2.8 points out of a maximum of 5 for violations of freedom of thought), finding "systematic discrimination" against non-religious people in government, education, and society.
One of these instances was in 2011 when then-Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a parliamentary condemnation speech of the Vatican's response to clerical child abuse allegations during the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic diocese of Cloyne.
[8] Kenny's words; "the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism that dominate the culture of the Vatican today", were met with nation-wide support in public, political and clerical domains.
[6] An article by Humanists International, published in 2020, compared the constitution's requirement of neutrality on religious questions with the practice, in the Dáil and Seanad, of beginning all sessions with a prayer.
Under "pro-life" conscious,[clarification needed] the Catholic Church supported the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act of 1983, which recognised the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn.
In 1973, Fine Gael supported a proposal to remove the Roman Catholic Church's status of "special position" in the constitution so that Ireland would become a secular state, which the voters approved.
The 2018 overturn of the Eighth Amendment in order to legalize abortion is one of the largest outcomes of this movement, exemplifying the (mostly Catholic identifying) population's secularized and liberalized attitudes in contemporary Ireland.
Men and women are becoming sexually active earlier than at any other period in history, they are more likely to be single, and the attitudes towards commercial sex, prostitution and pornography have widely changed to be accepted.
[19] The publication or utterance of blasphemous matter was an offence specified by the Constitution of Ireland as an exception to general guarantee of the right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.
In Corway v Independent Newspapers (1999), the Supreme Court held that the common law crime of blasphemous libel related to an established church and could not have survived the enactment of the Constitution.
[21] In June 2018, Minister for Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan announced that the government would hold a referendum to simply remove the reference to the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution.
[23] In 2018, the Irish Government legislated to end the so-called 'baptism barrier', which allowed religious affiliation in the form of Catholic baptism to be used as criteria in admitting pupils to primary schools.
Kenny's reaction in the Dáil Éireann marks a significant point as part of "Ireland's journey away from being a mono-Catholic state into a 21st century European republic”.
[33] Although largely unsuccessful, Garret FitzGerald is notable for being the first Taoiseach to advocate for a more liberal version of Irish society and create what he called the non-sectarian nation of "Tone and Davis".
[citation needed] For example, some female commentators have said that the term "quiet revolution" brushes off women's "screaming, shouting and singing for abortion rights" in their campaigning over a number of decades.
Archbishop Martin suggests that the concept of pro-life should incorporate "Jesus's loving care for human life at any stage” or circumstance, including support for women who are in difficult or painful situations.
The existence of both traditional theology and renewed ideology within the Catholic institution creates friction and inconsistencies, which ebbs church authority further and causes social policy to change.
