How a nation lost its way and nobody shouted stop
Last Sunday the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dairmuid Martin,
prostrated himself at the altar in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral in an act of
contrition for the victims of clerical sexual abuse.
With Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, one of the senior clergy sent by the
Vatican to Ireland to help clear up the Irish mess, he washed the feet of
several victims.
Doubtless both men were sincere but they were accused by some of taking part
in yet another 'stunt' by the Catholic Church. People were asking why an act
of contrition should be carried out in front of the television cameras. Why
not do so privately and tell the world about it afterwards?
Whatever the motives of Dr Martin, who has been an honourable Catholic figure
during the prolonged clerical sexual scandal, his act of contrition was also
symbolic of the economic mess in which the Irish nation finds itself.
As the election results become clearer, it is doubtful if any set of Irish
politicians can deal effectively with the worst crisis to engulf that State
since its formation.
The bizarre election campaign made fascinating viewing, and I was struck by
the complexity of the economic arguments and by the way in which the Irish
politicians quickly got stuck into one another.
It was reminiscent of the worst days of the Troubles when our own television
encounters were ferocious and personal. At that time there was a degree of
wonder in the Republic that Northerners could be so tribal but the election
campaign across the border showed their politicians can be just as
bloody-minded.
The horrendous state of the Republic's economy is due mainly to the
irresponsibility of the bankers and developers, aided by the cronyism of
politicians, particularly Fianna Fail
There is also much evidence that many people in the Republic lost the run of
themselves. They bought and sold property with a naïve belief that there
would never be a day of reckoning, and a certain class lived as if the days
of wine and roses would continue for ever.
Some also thought that irresponsibility was to be admired, even in some of
their leading politicians, and that, if people could bend the rules without
punishment, good luck to all concerned. They were cute operators but
eventually they outsmarted themselves.
( There's a much better expression of this which has associations with "cute
ladies of the night", but perhaps not the language for a family
newspaper).
In the end the failure in the Republic was as much moral as financial but, in
the many years when the Irish gravy-train was trundling along, the churches
were largely silent.
They thundered rightly about the disease of sectarianism in the North but
turned a blind eye to the cancer of financial greed in their own backyard.
There were some honourable exceptions to this, including Cardinal Sean Brady,
before he was overtaken by the church's clerical child abuse crisis. He had
been asking pertinent question about whether or not the nation was losing
its way, and its historic identity, in the greed and callousness of the
get-rich-quick society.
More recently, however, the Irish churches have rediscovered their conscience
in this area, and there have been strong words from senior clergy about the
ills of Irish society, which are not just financial, and also of the need to
find a path to a more holistic society.
This moral compass will be needed in the days ahead and already some Irish
voices have been campaigning to default on part of their debts - and none
more so than Sinn Fein who, in moral terms, remain utterly blackened by the
murderous violence of their Provisional IRA fellow-travellers.
However, we in the North should not gloat. There is still plenty wrong with
our society, not least our ingrained ability to take almost everything,
including our financial benefits, for granted. We have lived for so long on
the back of subsidies that we would not begin to know how to go it alone.
Perhaps a few strong sermons up here about differentiating between 'God and
Caesar' would not go amiss. If we did not have London, or someone other
source, to blame for so many of our ills, what on earth would we do?
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