For those of you not
familiar with the term “Blueshirts” it is the nickname given to the larger of
the outgoing government parties, Fine Gael.
The “Blueshirt” label originally
belonged to the Army Comrades Association (ACA), an organisation that modelled itself
on the various Fascist movements that were popular throughout Europe in the
1930’s such as Mussolini’s Blackshirts and Hitler’s Brownshirts; many in its
ranks would go on to fight for Franco in during the Spanish civil war in 1936.
The ACA renamed itself the
National Guard and merged with the partitionist pro-treaty party Cumann na nGaedheal in 1933
to form Fine Gael - the nickname has stuck since.
Since its foundation,
Fine Gael has never been in government without a coalition partner and the
party has only been returned to government for a second term on one occasion (1981–82;
1982–87) and that 6-years in government was its longest stint ever.
Our two incumbent Blueshirts
for Limerick City are Michael Noonan TD (left & back) and Kieran O’Donnell TD (front & right).
Noonan was first elected
in 1981 and has been re-elected ever since, often on the first count and
sometimes topping the poll; he has held various positions within the party,
including Leader and he has served in a variety of offices wile in government,
his current one being Minister for Finance.
Now, it’s not just
Noonan’s good-looks and high profile that gets him elected every time, he is
actually a solid worker and his constituency office is a tight ship. He does
not ignore correspondence and will always make representations on behalf of
constituents when requested to. I can honestly say that most of the replies
that my residents’ association got from the Office of Regeneration in the past
few years were because of his representations.
I will be voting for Noonan,
but he won’t be getting my number 1 (not that he will need it). I like to give
every candidate a preference and while I'm grateful for the representations on behalf of my community, I
am not happy with the government’s overall performance. Limerick Regeneration and water
meters are top of my grievances, so I think I might give him my No. 5 or 6, I'll decide on the day.
O’Donnell was first elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011, but this time round he will need every vote he can get to keep his seat. I think that the poster of
him with Noonan in the background is his attempt to piggyback on Noonan’s
reputation. I have not seen any posters of Noonan with O'Donnell behind him and there seem to be very few posters of O'Donnell on his own.
During my time as PRO
with the Ballinacurra Weston Residents’ Alliance I gave O’Donnell a tour of the
“regeneration” part of Weston in 2012 and here’s the video to prove it.
Many of the issues that
were raised with O’Donnell have since been resolved (no thanks to anything he
did I can assure you) and others are still outstanding – no community
participation, plenty of anti-social behaviour and the CCTV cameras are still
not monitored, although it was announced recently in the Limerick Leader that they would be soon (I wonder if there is an
election coming up). I think I’ll give O’Donnell my No. 10.
All
of these smiling faces looking down on me from the poles is making me nostalgic On the 7th May 2007, I
made a spontaneous decision to run for the Dáil – the general election was
17-days away and I was like a pig.
I had just left a meeting in Limerick
City Hall with the then newly appointed Director of Service for Housing, Mr.
Kieran Lehane, where I had been politely informed that he was never going to
sign off on plans to regenerate Weston Gardens; the 3 burnt-out houses on our
street would become the responsibility of a regeneration agency that would be
established in September.
These plans were the culmination
of 4-years of negotiation by Weston Gardens Residents Association (WGRA) with
Limerick City Council.
The WGRA had secured funding from
central government for our regeneration and the plans had been advertised in
February and again in March because they were never lodged the first time.
We were eventually told that the new
Housing Director had reservations about the plan and had refused to sign-off on
them.
It had taken me two-months to get
this meeting and despite the fact that I shared Mr. Lehane’s reservations, my
proposal to amend the plan accordingly during the Part 8 planning process was
rejected
The offer of a grant of €800 to
the WGRA to paint the 3 burnt-out houses was of little consolation, but
was politely accepted all the same.
“Fuck this” I said to myself as I
exited City Hall looking at the posters on the lampposts. I already had serious
concerns about this so-called regeneration that proposed to demolish 3,000
homes in four areas of the city and to build twice as many within a 5-year
period.
The first person to be informed
of my decision to run was one of our sitting TD’s.
Tim O’Malley was responsible for
getting me the meeting with Mr. Lehane and he was waiting outside to find out
how I got on.
“What party?” he asked
“No party – Independent, I'm headin' in now to put my name down”, I thanked him for his efforts and I stormed
off to the Courthouse just across from City Hall to register as a candidate.
I had to come back the following day
with a cheque for €500 because they didn't take cash. I was a self-employed
contractor at the time and I was in the middle of a job, so I wouldn't have
time to be knocking on doors. Besides, I was under no illusion that I had a
chance of taking a seat; I just wanted to share my concerns with the city and
in particular, the residents of the regeneration areas.
After work I would work on my
campaign. The first thing I did was buy a web address and start work on a
website, which didn't go live until 19th May (it took nearly 2-weeks
back then to set up a .ie address). I designed a poster that was half the size and
twice the price of everyone else’s because I wouldn't be ordering in bulk - I
got 50 of them printed at a cost of €12 each.
I was the only candidate to provide a direct phone number.
I then put together my “manifesto”,
an 8-page newsletter that gave voice to my concerns and views. I
delivered 6,000 of them over the 3-days that were left before the election, I
covered all of the regeneration areas and wherever else I could get to before
polling day.
I had considered doing one of
those “Litir um Thoghchán”, you know, those envelope size cards advertising the
candidate that are delivered to every household with a registered vote, but the
cost was prohibitive: €2,500 for a colour one or €1,800 for black and white.
Litreacha um Thoghchán I have received to date for ge16.
I got a great reaction to my
newsletter, with over 50 calls and 100+ text messages from complete strangers wishing
me well.
I may have had low expectations,
but elections to me are like what sports are to some people, so I was in my
element in the count centre. I managed to secure 188 No. 1 votes, over 600 No.2’s
and thousands of No. 3’s, I lost my €500 deposit, but I didn't care, I had received one No. 1 vote for every 31 newsletters that I delivered and I was proud of that.
I congratulated all the winners
as they were announced and asked that they would prioritise the deployment of the
“minimum of 100 additional Gardaí” recommended by the Fitzgerald Report as the first thing to be done for regeneration.
I'll never forget the reply I got
from Michael Noonan: “Let me be and don’t
be botherin me” he said as his little goonies elbowed me out of the way. Even that bit of hostility couldn't take from my enjoyment of the event.
My campaign was paid, for the most part, out of my own pocket (my mother sponsored half of my newsletters) and the total cost came to €1,500 - candidates are allowed to spend €45,000 and most of them did from what I could see.
I managed to stay self-employed until 2010 when I had to de-register with the Tax Office and sign on, so I wasn't in a position to contest the 2011 general election and if I had €500 to spare I'd have stuck my name on the ballot paper this time round, but hey "let's keep the recovery going".
The only thing about ge07 that left a bitter
taste in my mouth was my treatment by the local media.
I couldn't get on the local
radio for the life of me and the Limerick Post didn't want to know me unless I was buying an ad. However, the Limerick
Leader had allotted space to every candidate to answer “30 Questions For
The 30th Dáil” and they contacted me and invited me to participate.
The instructions I was given by
the Limerick Leader for answering the questions were:
"As you will see, some of
the questions are very concise while others require a little more detail in the
answers. Answers however, can be no more than 50 words."
Before I answered the questions I
contacted the journalist responsible and asked if they were strict on the 50-word-or-less rule (that applied
unless stated otherwise), as I had noticed that some candidates had exceeded
that limit on several occasions. For example, one candidate, Michael Noonan TD,
took 80 words to answer the first question when it had a limit of 40.
I was told that the point of the
quiz, to see if candidates were able to respond as requested, a test of their
ability. With that in mind I followed the instructions to the letter. I also saw
it as an opportunity to convey my political knowledge and other aspects of my
personality to more of the 74,000 registered voters, most of whom wouldn't receive my newsletter through their letterboxes.
I was truly shocked to see how
heavily edited my answers and how in comparison to the other candidate’s answers
mine took up considerably less space!
I was livid, but I resolved to
rise above and I responded by buying a full page advert in the Limerick Leader, a quarter of which would be my poster and the rest
of the space was to be filled by the lead article from my newsletter, “A Tale of Two Cities”. I don’t know if
it was incompetence or deliberate, but they made shit of my ad as well. All of
text was in bold and the font was Arial instead of Times-New-Roman as I had specified. this made it illegible.
I had always believed that there was a media
bias against Independents in favour of the parties. However, experiencing it first-hand convinced me that there is. I was never really
a contender, which makes what they did all the more petty.
I've highlighted in red
the cuts that were made by the Limerick Leader to my answers.
1. Explain, in 40 words or less, why you deserve our readers' No 1
preference.
Not being in thrall to any party, I would represent their interests only. I
want to stop the fracturing of families; I will work to ensure that both
parents are not forced by economic necessity to work outside the home.
2. Can you identify one thing
above all that you are committed to achieving if elected?
Many areas in Limerick have been badly neglected and virtually abandoned by our
local authority; one would be forgiven for thinking that Limerick City Council
is more concerned in promoting the interests of the business community than
those of the people. Reform of local government is a big priority.
3. Describe Limerick in three
words.
Home Sweet Home.
4. Now do the same for yourself.
Independent, Republican, Battler.
5. Where did you get your politics - did someone or something inspire your
ideology/party affiliation?
My republicanism comes from my late grandma, Kathleen O'Brien (nee O'Rourke).
She was a teenager during the War of Independence and told me stories about her
time as a Cumman na mBan courier and my grandfather, an IRA volunteer. She told to me her grandmother’s stories about the Famine
and the Fenian’s.
6. What seat in your constituency do you see as being under the most threat? In 2002 Willie O’Dea and Michael Noonan were
elected on the first count with a healthy surplus. Peter Power exceeded the
quota on the 10th count. Tim O’Malley and Jan O’Sullivan took their seats
without exceeding the quota as everyone else was eliminated. The
last three seats could be anyone’s.
7. If you were not voting for yourself in your constituency, who would get
your No 1?
Tim O'Malley, while I disagree with most PD policies, he strikes me as the most
sincere and hardworking of the incumbents. Noreen Ryan, she would inject some
much-needed republicanism into Fianna Fáil. Dennis Riordan or Connor O’Donoghue,
for their integrity and idealism. I could never decide until the day.
8. Which historical figure do you
most admire?
Patrick Pearse and the other signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. The best way to commemorate them is for people to reclaim
the Republic by voting for those who will “pursue the happiness and prosperity
of the whole nation and all its parts, cherishing all the children of the
nation equally”.
9. What personal measures have
you taken to become 'greener'?
I recycle, compost and use energy saving light bulbs. I live in a second hand
home that I restored with my own hands. Essentially, I believe that mending is
better than ending.
10. What is the biggest mistake
the current Government have made since 2002?
Taking people for granted. Saying that “a
rising tide raises all boats” is all well and good assuming that we all had
boats to begin with. Quite a few are barely keeping their necks above water! We
need an economy that works for everyone and benefits all.
11. What is the biggest mistake
you have made in your political life?
Not deciding to stand for election sooner.
12. Would it bother you if there
was no united Ireland in 50 years' time?
It bothers me that there isn't one now. Partition distorted the political,
economic, social and cultural life of our country and fostered sectarian
divisions among our people. Thankfully the
Peace Process is bearing fruit; if Sinn Féin and the DUP can share power then
there is hope for the future.
13. If you could reduce property
prices by 10% overnight would you do it?
Yes, by capping the profit that a developer is permitted to make on a new
house. People before profit and Families first, that's what I believe. The
concept of a “property ladder” is bad for neighbourhoods; you can’t build a
community when people move in with a view to moving out.
14. When was the last time you
drank to excess? I don't normally make toasts, if I were to drink to
anything I would drink to prosperity. Joking aside, I have a low
tolerance for alcohol, three pints is my limit. I
was at a christening last Sunday and had four pints after the meal, I was
starting to wobble!
15. What is your proudest single
achievement as a political representative?
I'm not there yet! I did campaign for Kathy
Sinnott during the 2004 European elections. I was proud to have helped elect a
true champion of our most vulnerable: the disabled, the sick and the elderly.
She has proved herself to be the most dedicated MEP we have in Munster.
16. Are local hospitals
adequately resourced?
No. For example our maternity hospital has two theatres, one for emergencies
and one for scheduled c-sections. A friend of mine was recently scheduled for a
c-section and had to wait 24hrs and become an emergency before being operated
on, because there was only enough staff for one theatre!
17. What is the biggest single
issue you are finding on the doorsteps?
I haven't knocked on any doors yet and as a working father I might not have the
time to call to everyone. I'll probably just leaflet and not disturb their
meals. However, from people I've spoken to in casual conversation on the
street, I would say crime and anti-social behaviour.
18. On a scale of 1-10, rate the
cynicism of the Limerick electorate towards politicians.
10 in some places. Some of our estates have been surrendered to criminal gangs
who decide who can and can't live there. People feel abandoned by the state.
Garda Sub Stations should be established in the heart of such areas to house
the "100 additional Gardaí"
recommended by John Fitzgerald.
19. Do you have any reservations
about John Fitzgerald's report on Limerick housing estates?
Some parties are calling for the regeneration boards to be established before
the election, despite the fact that Mr. Fitzgerald has clearly stated that
firstly "...intensive policing intervention is required in the short to
medium term to allow the other interventions an opportunity to work."
First things first!
20. Is the decline in farming
irreversible?
We are importing poultry from SE Asia and beef from Brazil where costs are considerably
lower. Direct subsidies are being phased out making the production of food here
less viable. It is unlikely that we will see subsidies re-introduced and such
imports prohibited. I fear for the future of farming.
21. How's your Irish? And do you
think compulsory Irish in second-level education is still the best way to
ensure preservation of the language?
Tá mo chuid Ghaeilge cuíosach lag, mór mo náire. It would be daft to downgrade
the status of Irish in our schools when it’s
just been recognised as an official language of the EU. The fact that more
emphasis is being put on spoken Irish in schools today is welcome.
22. Where did you meet your
partner?
I met Cindy on the social scene in Limerick through a friend who was dating her
sister at the time.
23. Do you have a sporting hero?
Michelle Smith DeBruin, she won her medals fair and square. I was a competitive swimmer for years and know the
sport. Hard training alone can produce dramatic results and she performed on
the day. The manner in which an ignorant media pounced on accusations by a
jealous competitor was disgusting.
24. What would you say to people
who criticise the number of foreign nationals now living in Limerick?
Government policy on immigration is exploitative and racist, preaching tolerance
while promoting resentment. Little is being done to integrate and we have
enough problems with crime and anti-social behaviour without importing more. It
only takes a handful of bad apples to tarnish the public perception of the
hard-working majority.
25. Can you see the ratio of male
and female TDs becoming more equal over the next 20 years?
I would like to see more women getting involved in politics and people electing
them because of their beliefs as opposed to their gender. I don’t believe in
tokenism or “positive” discrimination. Imposing a
gender balance undermines the advancement of women by denying them an
opportunity to compete as equals.
26. What would your luxury item
be if you were stranded on a desert island?
A wind up radio, the one with the built in dynamo - no batteries required.
27. Who has been the most
inspirational person in your life?
My partner, Cindy. She is an amazing mother and talented artist. We’ve been
together 16 years and had our ups and downs, happy and trying times, but at the
end of the day she’s always been there for me. She is my rock; I’d be lost
without her.
28. Have you had a life-changing
moment that stands out?
The birth of my sons, Ógie (Cathal Óg) 5yrs, and Ruairí, 3yrs. Both occasions
are still with me. One of the reasons that I decided to run in this election is
because I want them to be able to grow up in a safe and secure environment.
29. If you were to undergo
plastic surgery, what would you have done?
I don't believe in cosmetic solutions to real problems; either personally or
politically. One would be forgiven for
thinking that this election is a beauty contest given all the pretty posters.
What are they all smiling about anyway? This is a serious business!
30. What opposition politician do
you most admire in Ireland?
Michael D. Higgins. He is one of the few idealists left in Dáil Éireann and I think the Labour Party did the country a great
disservice by not allowing him to run for President. I voted for Mary McAleese,
she's done a good job, but he would have been brilliant.
Animated intro that I made for the splash page of my website.
84 years ago today, on Tuesday 16 February 1932, Ireland went to the
polls to elect the 7th Dáil.
It's hard to believe that there once was a time that the government was
so scared of a challenge to their rule that they saw fit to take out full page
ad's in the local and national papers on the day of the General Election. It's
even harder to believe the champions of the poor that threatened the status quo
were Fianna Fáil.
Warning people that "the gunmen and communists" were voting
for Fianna Fáil, the advertisements contained the following quote:
"It is said we killed people. We did kill. Killing is a hard thing
and we make no apology for what we have done, and if circumstances arose we
would kill again. It is said we took money from the banks. There were millions
in the coffers of the Bank of Ireland, and who had a better right to it than
the men who were fighting for their country?" — Mr. Dan Breen, Fianna Fáil
candidate, 1932 general election.
Despite this, Fianna Fáil won the majority of seats (72 0ut 0f 153) and
formed a coalition government with Labour (7 seats) and The Farmers Party (3
seats), declared a general amnesty and promptly released all the republican
prisoners.
Fianna Fáil maintained links with the IRA until 1934 and in 1936
declared them an illegal organisation. Dan Breen, the veteran IRA man, went on
to represent the people of Tipperary as their T.D. until he retired in 1967.
The 7th Dáil lasted less than a year, but it was to be the
beginning of a 16-year stretch for Fianna Fáil in government, for most of which
they had an overall majority.
This reign came to an end in 1948 when the General Election for the 13th
Dáil returned a Fine Gael led government with Labour, the newly formed Clan na
Poblachta (CnP) and others.
What was unusual about this coalition was that the leader of CnP, Seán
McBride, was a former Chief of Staff of the IRA and had only resigned this
position in 1937.
Another interesting feature of this coalition was that none of the party
leaders became Taoiseach as there were objections from CnP to the Fine Gael
leader, Richard Mulcahy, a former Free-State Army General that was considered
to be responsible for having 77 republican prisoners executed during the Civil
War (53 more than the British had executed during the War of Independence).
Unable to form a government without CnP, Mulcahy stepped aside and Fine
Gael’s John A. Costello was elected Taoiseach.
As we face into the General Election for the 32nd Dáil there
are some lessons to be learned from all this history; negative campaigning and
anti-republican media campaigns have a tendency to backfire and Irish politics
can make for strange bedfellows.
FOREWORD: I wrote this in 2012, it was an assignment for the "Globalisation" module of a taught Masters course in Sociology at the University of Limerick. One of the things that we were taught is that conducting research can often lead to further questions depending on the findings that emerge. Well, I noticed something while re-reading this assignment the other day and it begs the question - where have all the Methodists gone? Were they the one true faith that were taken by the rapture with the rest of us left behind? :) Joking aside, we are due another census this year and it will be interesting to see how trends have changed in the past five years.
Saints & Scholars? The changing trends of religiosity in Ireland.
More recently described as the land of rogues and robbers, Ireland was once known as the land of saints and scholars. This paper will discuss the changing patterns of religiosity in Ireland since the foundation of the state in 1921 and examine the cause and effect of the decline in Christianity, particularly Catholicism. Ireland’s colonial past has been cited as the main reason for the high levels of practising Catholics, which was seen as a way of asserting an Irish identity and which declined towards the end of the 20th Century (Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, 1988 & Martin, 1978 cited in Nic Ghiolla Phádraig 2009; Anderson 2010, p.17). The British imposition of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 established two states on the Island, Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. Ireland, which consists of 32 counties and four provinces, was partitioned on the basis of a sectarian headcount and Ireland’s industrial base in the north remained under British control. Northern Ireland contained six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster and the Irish Free State consisted of the remaining 26 counties. The Irish Free State began independence as a third world country heavily dependent on agriculture and as such was not in a position to reform essential structures of the state such as the civil service and education, the latter being run by religious denominations. Essentially, the churches were left in charge of education, the largest of which were Catholic. The desired republican and secular ethos of the state could not be fully realised while it remained dependant on the Church to provide essential services and the issue of church run schools remains unresolved to this day. This dependence goes some to explaining why “Ireland has long been considered the European exception to secularization” (Anderson 2010, p.16). Rather than a separation of Church and state the two became intertwined. However, it is often mistakenly claimed that Irish state was officially a Catholic country, with such false claims largely propagated by Unionists in Northern Ireland, which was an openly sectarian state that actively discriminated against the large Catholic minority; In 1934, Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister Lord Craigavion, declared “All I boast is that we have a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant state” (Farrell 1976, p.92). By contrast, the 1922 constitution of the Irish Free State prohibited the endowment of religion by the state (Article 8). This was replaced by Bunreacht Na hÉireann, the Irish Constitution, in 1937. While this new constitution recognised the “special position” of the Catholic Church, it was not well received by the Holy See; Pope Pius XI remarked "We do not approve, nor do we not disapprove - we will remain silent". However, several years later, Pius XII praised the Irish Constitution for its foundation in natural law (Jeffers 2003, p.3). Demands for equality and civil rights for Catholics in the late 60’s led to the outbreak of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. In an attempt to appease Unionism and demonstrate the pluralism of the Irish state, the Irish government proposed to amend the Irish Constitution. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution proposed to delete subsection 2° and 3° of Article 44.1 of the Constitution which read as follows: 2° The State recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens. 3° The State also recognises the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, as well as the Jewish Congregations and the other religious denominations existing in Ireland at the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution.
(Referendum Results 1937 – 2011, p.81)
On Thursday, 7th December, 1972, the vast majority of the Irish electorate ratified the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and removed the special position of the Catholic Church; with a turnout of 50.7% of the electorate, 721,003 voted for and 133,430 voted against the proposal. (Referendum Results 1937 – 2011, p.27) Despite the influence of the Catholic Church in the affairs of the state, it would be wrong to describe the state as simply sectarian. Following the ratification of the Constitution in 1937, the people of southern Ireland elected their first president, Douglas Hyde, a Protestant. Many Protestant TD’s have been elected to Dáil Éireann over the years without the help of Protestant voters. Ireland has a tiny Jewish population, yet a one point there were three Jewish TD’s representing different parties: Ben Briscoe was a Fianna Fáil TD for the constituency of Dublin-South Central (1969 – 2002, he succeeded his father, Robert Briscoe, who had held the seat for 38-years), Mervin Taylor was first elected as a TD for the Labour Party in 1981 and retained the seat in successive elections until he retired in 1997, and Alan Shatter (The current Minister for Justice) was first elected as a TD for Fine Gael in 1981. According to the census results for 2011 the Jewish population in Ireland is actually increasing and currently stands at 1,984 (CSO 2012), hardly sufficient to elect even one TD. My home City of Limerick elected Irelands first openly atheist TD, Jim Kemmy, in 1981. Considered by his critics to be “anti-clerical” Kemmy was often in conflict with the Catholic Church over his contrary views on abortion and contraceptives. He lost his seat in 1982, not because of his religious views but because he had publicly criticised the Hunger Strikes of republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. Kemmy regained the seat in 1987, which he held until his death in 1997. In 1992 the (predominately Catholic) constituency of Clare elected Irelands first Muslim TD, Dr. Moosajee Bhamjee (originally from South Africa of Indian parents) won a seat for the Labour Party in what was considered to be a Fianna Fáil stronghold. I specifically remember that the fact that he was Irelands first Muslim TD was overshadowed by the fact that Labour had encroached into Fianna Fáil’s territory; in Ireland party politics is often more divisive than religion and while Dáil Éireann has been criticised for its low number of women TD’s, it is certainly more religiously diverse than you would expect from the suffrage of what is widely perceived to be a Catholic country. The Catholic Church’s influence through indoctrination in the schools and dictates from the pulpit has waned since the 1972 referendum. Over the decades that followed a number of amendments were made by the Irish people that changed what were essentially religiously inspired articles, most notably the Tenth Amendment, which provided for dissolution of civil marriage. Various scandals and the exposure of clerical sexual abuse have served to lessen the influence of the Catholic Church with a corresponding decline in attendance and practice leading to the emergence of new trends of religiosity (Cosgrove et al, 2011). According to the Census figures for 2011 (CSO 2012), there are 4,588,252 people residing in the state, an increase of 348,404 since the 2006 census. Religiously, the largest group number 3,861,335 and are ‘registered’ as Roman Catholics, an increase of 179,889 since 2006, whereas 1,279 declared themselves ‘lapsed Catholics’. Mainstream Protestant sects, such as Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Lutherans, Methodists and Baptists, totalled 219,216. Muslims ranked third with a population of 49,204, an increase of 16,665, followed by Eastern Orthodox Churches with 45,223, an increase of 24,425 while “Other Christian Religions” numbered 41,161, an increase of 11,955. Hindu’s numbered 10,688, an increase of 4,606. Buddhists numbered 8,703, an increase of 2,187 and Jews numbered 1,984, an increase of 54. Those declaring themselves Atheist numbered 3,905, an increase of 2,976. Agnostics numbered 3,521, an increase of 2,006, while those claiming “no religion” numbered 269,811, an increase of 83,493. People whose religion was “not stated” numbered 72,914, an increase of 2,592. Those declaring themselves Pagan numbered 1,940, an increase of 249. On the face of it, it would appear that religious affiliation is on the increase, the only noticeable decrease was amongst Methodists, who numbered 6,842, a decrease of -5,318, and Evangelicals who numbered 4,188, a decrease of -1,088. Undoubtedly, these increases can be somewhat explained by the “new Irish”, people who have immigrated here in increasing numbers over the past decade. While the majority of people have declared themselves Catholic, this is not reflected in attendance of Mass. Indeed many churches have had to close because of non-attendance. It is also interesting to note that those claiming “no religion” outnumbered the combined figures for mainstream Protestantism by over 50,000. Ireland has made many advances in communication, transportation, and information technologies since the 1970’s and is considered to be one of the one of the most globalised countries in the world (Ernst and Young 2010 cited in Cosgrove et al 2011, p.241) and religiously speaking, the census figures demonstrate a growing diversity in religious beliefs and affiliations. It has also been noted that “economic growth responds positively to religious beliefs but negatively to church attendance” (Barro and McCleary 2003 cited in Cosgrove et al 2011, p.243), although this would seem to have been contradicted by the recent global economic crash and would appear somewhat delusional. Since the birth of the “Celtic Tiger” in the mid 1990’s, Ireland has become more individualistic, materialistic and consumer driven and in such a society it can be very hard to ‘love thy neighbour’ if you don’t know or don’t care who your neighbours are. It has been argued that the rise in consumerism and the decline of Catholicism in Ireland as a “unifying moral framework” has left such a void in people’s lives that it can be directly linked to increased suicide levels (Keohane & Kuhling, 2004, p.55-56). There is a growing trend in Ireland of “holistic spiritualities”, which can be described as those forms of practice involving the body, and that have as their goal the “attainment of wholeness and well-being of body, mind, and spirit.” And which are prevalent within emerging New Age and neo-pagan communities (Siontu & Woodhead, 2008, p.259). In Ireland, such New Religious Movements (NRM) are not defined by the age of their texts, practices or beliefs, but by the fact that the majority of its members are converts, that as a new religion it has little power or wealth when compared to the established religions (Cosgrove et al 2011, pp.5-6). Equally, what makes such “spiritualities” alternative are not the persons experiences but the fact that such experiences and their interpretations completely different to the experience within established religion or society: (this is the difference between a powerful experience of a Celtic deity or of “energy flow” on the one hand, and a vision of the Virgin Mary or a ghost on the other) (Cosgrove et al 2011, p.6). Such trends are demonstrative of peoples need to give a deeper meaning and spirituality to their lives as they struggle with issues of morality and materialism. In their book ‘Collision Culture: Transformations in Everyday Life in Ireland’ Kohane and Kuhling (2004) examine the lifestyle and politics of New Age travellers living on Cool Mountain near Bantry Co. Cork. While they don’t examine the religious views of the New-Age Travellers, it is the use of Lukacs (1971) concept of “transcendental homelessness” to explain the use of temporary dwellings in the long-term as what they consider to be an “identity crisis” (p.130) as they seek to escape the modern consumerist lifestyle. I would argue that such a concept could be applied to spiritual and religious issues. As Nic Ghiolla Phádraig (2009) notes, despite the marked decline in religious practice and an increasingly secular society, there is a continuity of belief regarding the afterlife and fidelity in marriage. Is it possible that the void left by religious practices could create a “transcendental spiritual homelessness”? Is there a need in most people to be more than just consumers who reproduce and die? In the words of Lukacs we are both “secular, but yearning for the sacred, ironic but yearning for the absolute, individualistic, but yearning for the wholeness of community, fragmented, but yearning for immanent totality. (Lukacs 1971 cited in Keohane and Kuhling 2004, p.131)
References
Anderson, K. (2010), ‘Irish Secularization and Religious Identities:
Evidence of an Emerging New Catholic Habitus’, Social Compass, 57(1), 15–39.
Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) Act, 1922
[online] available:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1922/en/act/pub/0001/print.html [accessed 1 Mar
2012]
Cosgrove, O., Cox, L., Kuhling. C., and Mulholland, P. (eds.)
(2011). Ireland’s New Religious Movements, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
Farrell, M. (1976), Nothern Ireland: The Orange State, London: Pluto
Press
Jeffers J. (2003) ‘Dead or Alive?: The Fate of Natural Law in Irish
Constitutional Jurisprudence’ Galway Law
Review, [online] available:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/law/GSLR/2003/Natural%20Law%20and%20the%20Irish%20Constitution.pdf
[accessed 1 Mar 2012]
Keohane, K. & Kuhling, C. (2004), Collision Culture:
Transformations in Everyday Life in Ireland, Dublin: The Liffey Press
Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, M. (2009), ‘Religion in Ireland: No Longer an
Exception’ Research Update, Number
64.
Referendum Results 1937 – 2011, (2011), Dublin: The Department Of
The Environment, Community And Local Government, [online] available:
http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/Voting/Referenda/PublicationsDocuments/FileDownLoad,1894,en.pdf
[accessed 1 Mar 2012]
Sointu E. & Woodhead L. (2008) ‘Spirituality, Gender, and
Expressive Selfhood’ Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47(2),
pp.259–276.
On Saturday 6th February 2016 far-left protesters attacked supporters of PEGIDA Ireland (an anti- Islamisation group) as they tried to make their way to the GPO in Dublin City centre for a rally that was not allowed to happen.
Edit Note: the original 6min video that this blog was written about is no longer available on You Tube. the above 3min video is a re-edited version of the deleted one and does not feature the quote below by loud mouth hooligan Derek Byrne, or the SJW's hanging back from the trouble.
This video is so enlightening.
Oh the irony of Nazi scum chanting "Nazi scum get off our streets" while refusing to get off our streets.
I suppose they only wanted to assert their right to beat up people that they disagree with and how dare those evil Gardaí prevent them from defending us all from these “racists”.
"This is Ireland 2016 - racists are protected and the sticks are drawn on the people"
-Derek Byrne
That says it all really; it’s okay to violently molest and beat a "racist" because they're not actually people - dehumanise the enemy/unbeliever and do as you please with them, it has a familiar ring to it. An almost "Es Ist Zeit zu säubern - Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!" chime to it. A call to purge and cleanse – hello religiosity!
Of course, the collective harassment experienced by the PEGIDA Ireland supporters in this video is nothing compared to the experience of the women of Cologne and many other European cities on New Years Eve.
The "taherrush" literally means "collective harassment" and this fun Islamic game involves the sexual molestation and/or rape of women that are wearing perfume or are considered to be immodestly dressed (no hijab). There are over 1,000 official complaints from women in Cologne to date and the more sensibly dressed (duffle coat and jeans) got off the lightest, whereas women in skirts were literally brutalised. This is not acceptable behaviour and the very thought of it angers me.
Thankfully, we didn't experience that in Ireland because we haven't yet imported tens of thousands of third-world migrants with medieval beliefs, who, because of their numbers, don't feel the need to integrate and think they can insist that their Sharia Law should be tolerated in our Democracy.
We should look to Sweden as a cautionary tale and resolve not to replicate their mistakes. Irish people have every right to be concerned about open borders and mass immigration. We have a constitutional right to express those concerns in public, "peaceably and without arms" and anyone that interferes with that right is an enemy to our Democracy and our Freedom.
I suppose we should really thank these far-left nut-jobs for showing themselves up and I hope that people think long and hard before voting for any of the parties that they are associated with; I’d much rather be legally induced to pay my water bill than risk electing a totalitarian regime that would use physical coercion to silence dissenting voices.
I mean, I have Muslim friends that think we should close the borders, but then again they're integrated so I suppose that makes them "racist" as well, like the Polish lad in this video that "comes to this country" to be dictated to by a moron who thinks he knows what this country stands for while telling him he can’t go to the GPO!
Let me tell you this, Pearse and Connolly wouldn't spit on these frauds if they were on fire; they are anti-republican and they actually hate our country. This is the only conclusion that I can come to about people that promote open borders and mass immigration, especially in this day and age when we can all see what is happening in Europe. Take the flag from the mast you Irish traitors!
The virtue signalling middle-class Social Justice Warriors that hang well back from the trouble, bleating "Nazi scum get off our streets”, provide a good example of what it means to be a useful idiot. Of course, this video has been edited to remove the part where our “heroes” chase their quarry into a shop to administer their rough justice in the form of a beating.
The RTE camera man is ordered out by the leftists and he dutifully complies just as the Gardaí arrive and clear them all out. It is odd that the same RTE cameraman isn't as compliant when he is later told to move back by the Gardaí (Channel 4 News posted a video of this on Facebook; I'll leave a link below).
I don’t like it when the state abuses its power and uses the Gardaí to clear the road for Shell or arrest residents for objecting to their homes being water metered, but in this case I have to say fair play to our Gardaí for defending our democracy and more importantly, defending the lives of those that were prevented from exercising their constitutional rights.
I don’t know what PEGIDA were going to say had they made it to the GPO, but I do know that we have laws against hate speech and incitement to violence and that they would have been prosecuted if they engaged in it. We certainly don’t need self-appointed thought police preventing people from expressing views that they disagree with - that is Fascist, that is Communist, that is totalitarian.
I am not a member of Identity Ireland or of PEGIDA Ireland, but I share their concerns regarding the Islamisation of Europe through the acceptance of Sharia Law, and this shared concern in the eyes of some makes me a “racist” and a “fascist” – a non-human to be hunted down and destroyed – “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” they might chant when they get round to me.
I can only wonder if this is the type of political discourse I can now expect from my leftist friends? You know, those of you that advocate for open borders and mass immigration, the next time I encounter 5 or more of you should I be worried? Will I be attacked and chased into a shop because I disagree with you?
If my reasonable concerns are considered to be “far-right”, “fascist” and “racist” should I embrace those labels and the next time we meet maybe I could chant something like “Stalin, Pol Pot, No! No! No! – Communist scum away you go” while violently assaulting you and chucking you off a building like a homosexual in one of those oh so tolerant Islamic countries? Would that be the kind of thing you have in mind?
Fear not, I will not stoop to that level, I actually believe in Freedom of Speech for everyone, including you leftists.
