Ireland was Ireland/ When England Was a Pup; Ireland Will Be Ireland/ When England's Time is Up ( Old Street Ballad)
We are an unfortunate priest-ridden race and always were and always will be tell the end of the chapter.... A priest-ridden Godforsaken race. JAMES JOYCE, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ireland - not to be confused with Irish People - always wanted to be England. By that I mean, the Irish who cleaned up good, went to University, got jobs on newspapers, RTE in the Irish government or elected to the Dáil , or advocated, were never happy being biologically linked to bog men who could crack anvils with pious prayer.
With the Irish Gay Marriage Victory all of that is no longer a problem:
Secularists insist that religious people will continue to receive the protection of the state – and maybe they are correct. But you have to concede that this does amount to a social revolution by statute. Once-upon-a-time you never had to think twice before quoting Corinthians in public. Nowadays, you have to invoke the state’s beneficent protection to do so.
Ireland is finally England! Ireland is a secular state, unhobbled by any faith -Of our Fathers anyway.
The Secular Marriage for Anyone Victory in Ireland - the country and not the people, necessarily - is a victory for the cleaned-up good, University sampled, employed secularists who PLO over IDF and Seifreid Nelson Sauvignon blanc 2014 over a pint of Guinness any day. These are the folks who believe in OXFAM over St. Vincent De Paul, admire Khaled Mashal rather than Chaim Herzog and Michael Barron way over Kevin Myers.
We have the same crowd here in Chicago and Illinois - the comfortable activist/investment plunger who watches only WTTW, loves abortion and hates Chick Fil Lay.
Ireland's referendum has nothing to do with gay or straight. It's only about making sure that the Roman Catholic Church goes to ground for good, just as Henry VIII demanded when he socially engineered religion out of existence in that daffy realm.
Ireland is England.
I think that the Irish People will rethink this referendum in about ten years. Ireland will object mightily.
