The first censorship law was the Censorship of Films Act in 1923. The board of censorship that was set up took a very restricted view on what was seen as indecent and obscene. All dancing seen as indecent was banned. Similarly, the showing of extra-marital relationships, divorce and infidelity while married were frowned upon and were not allowed to be shown as ‘positive’ things. It was possible to appeal against this board, but it was a bit of a lost cause because the amount of successful appeals was very few. The act that was printed in 1929 was as strict and the reference of anything to do with sexuality was banned. Groups like the Catholic Truth society brought any printed material that they believed to be offensive to the Censorship Board. A film called ‘Modern Women’ was banned in the 1950s for having bathing suits in it! This shows that the church had a strong influence over sexuality in Ireland at that time. ‘The more serious consequence of such restrictive legislation was that it presented images of a sanitised sexuality that gave precedence to motherhood and family and ignored representations of women as complex and sexual human beings’. (2. Kelly, 1993, p.189)
The Act of 1929 also did not allow anything to be published or printed that was to do with abortion or birth control. This again shows the power of the Church because of their ‘condemnation’ towards birth control. In 1933 the Vatican asked the Irish government to make a protest to the League of Nations against the use of birth control (eg. The contraceptive pill). They agreed with the request. (5. Keogh, 1995, p.109) The Criminal Law Act of 1935 banned importing and selling birth control devices. This affected poor women and women in poor health the most.
The Catholic Church had great strength and success in its control over sex and sexuality. That power has roots that lie in the role played by the Church's teachings on sexuality in the development of capitalism in Ireland. Colonialism made it illegal that Catholics attend or celebrate mass because of penal laws made in Britain in mid 17th century. In the second half of the 18th century the British government decided to change tactics and to try to build an alliance with the Catholic bishops. They made Maynooth College a seminary for Catholic Priests. This alliance did not work. After the Great Famine of the 1840s the Catholic Church became the new Irish ruling class. This was due to the amount of the rural poor who died or emigrated. Their land was taken over by tenant farmers. This role first gave the Catholic Church's view of sexuality the kind of power it has traditionally had in Ireland. The Church showed an ideological way of thinking that led to the pattern of late marriages. The role of women was also important in this. Before the famine women had made a huge contribution to the ‘familv’ economy and by 1841 women accounted for more than half the ‘non-agricultural’ labour force. Most of this was based on spinning wool, cotton and linen. The number of spinners dropped by about 75% between 1841 and 1851. Only in Belfast, where linen became a factory industry, did this work survive the damage of the industrial revolution and the Great Famine.
Women did not have a clear economic role in the family. The Church became involved in Irish family life, preaching the importance of the family, the evil of all sexual activity, but still managing to slip in the importance 'procreation of children' and using the Virgin Mary as the model for women. Women stayed in the home and became transmitters of Catholic ideology.
In most countries the religious head of the household is the man but in Ireland it is generally the woman. Women in the post-famine period had the role said to be the most important within society which was bringing up children in the Catholic faith, with Catholic sexual morals, Catholic fear and Catholic guilt. The Church did not have to police the family, instead women did it for them. Women had little choice. There was nothing else on offer and in return for this they received respect, status and authority.
The Church kept up its control up until the 1970s when changes in the economy meant the control lessened. Industrialisation in the 1970s produced huge job opportunities for women. The number of women working in the economy in Ireland increased by 50% between 1971 and 1991, while the number of men working only increased by 10%.
Right up to the 1970s it was assumed that once a woman got married she would give up her job (even before children arrived). In 1961 only 5% of married women were getting paid for working. Today almost a third of married women work outside the home.
This gave women in Ireland an alternative to the religious and moral teacher in the home. As women started to go out to work, they changed their attitude to things. That meant a different attitude to sexual matters, more equal marriage relationships and a completely different view of sex outside marriage.
As early as 1979, surveys found that 75% of married couples used a form of contraception not approved of by the Catholic Church at some time in their marriage. The average family size has halved over a single generation. Women are no longer being forced into marriage because they find themselves pregnant, the number of weddings of teenagers due to having babies has fallen from 2,400 in 1971 to 600 in 1991.
Despite the ban on abortion, Irish women in their early 20s are as likely to have an abortion as women in Britain. Single women who decide to continue their pregnancies usually chose to bring the child up themselves instead of going for adoption.
The Church has tried to fight back. The abortion referendum of 1983 gave women equal status under the constitution if they were pregnant. In the divorce referendum of 1987, 60% of voters wanted to keep the ban on divorce. This shows us that the Church still has power. However the law on divorce has now been passed so maybe we are heading for a future which would allow abortion in Ireland and see the decrease in influence of the control of sexuality by the Catholic Church in society.
Bibliography
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Hogan, G.W. 1997. Law and Religion: Church-State Relations in Ireland From Independence to the Present Day, American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol.35 p.47-96.
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Kelly, Mary. 1993. Censorship and the Media in Gender and the Law in Ireland, Dublin, Oak Tree Press.
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Kenny, Mary. 1997. Goodbye to Catholic Ireland. A social, personal and cultural history from the fall of Parnell to the realm of Mary Robinson, London, Sinclair-Stevenson.
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Keogh, Dermot. 1996. The Role of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland 1922-1995, Belfast, Blackstaff Press.
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Keogh, Dermot. 1995. Ireland and the Vatican, The Politics and Diplomacy of Church-State Relations 1922-1960, Cork, Cork University Press.
