Ireland, somewhat like Canada some years ago, is in its bratty teenager years and as part of that it likes to go behind the bleachers, smoke cigarettes, make out, and complain about its parents. In the case of Ireland, the parents are its former English overlords and the Catholic Church. In the case of Canada, it's its deeply conservative English and French heritage, the latter of which is deeply Catholic and which doesn't exist without it, and the former of which was deeply Anglican.
Hence, in the case of Ireland, this:
I have no doubt the referendum will pass, and in the case of the “life within the home" language in regard to women, it ought to, in my view. And frankly, the DeValera constitution's lashing Ireland to the Church was a mistake in the first place, one which the Church tried to prevent.
The thing is, however, that the modern world to which the Irish now aspire is frankly bloody and barbaric. It's made people weird, and unhappy. The Irish constitution notwithstanding, the strong connection to the existential that the Irish had, and to a large degree still do, made Ireland one of the very few democratic nations that was able to remain grounded and not teeter between the radical left and right. The US, which has a different heritage, was able to as well, but that's now floundering badly. Ireland, from the outside, isn't doing well either, and is starting to have the appearance as all bratty teenagers do who try to keep that status too long, as looking worn and tired.
I hate to pick too much on Canada, which has the massive misfortune of living next to the US right now. As I said the other day on Twitter, living in Canada right now must be like living in an upstairs apartment where the downstairs neighbors are having a large drug and alcohol fueled argument at a family reunion, and their couch is on fire. Indeed, Canada seems to have passed through its bratty stage, which arrived with Trudeau I, and which may be argued to have ended during the COVID pandemic. Right now, rather than poking its heritage in the eye, it seems to be taking on the role of the worried 30-year-old who has been saddled with caring for its clearly senile and always somewhat combative uncle, Uncle Sam.
Je me souviens.
