Ain't Irish Politics strange? We now have the hugely Roman Catholic south voting 2:1 to allow abortions whereas the Protestant Ulster are now fighting to retain the strict abortion laws currently in place.
I find it highly amusing, if not hypocritical, for Sinn Fein to be celebrating this as a victory having hidden behind the Catholic Church for decades!
Yep, politics over the Irish Sea seem to be somewhat upside down at present!
Not really.
Firstly you are conflating the politics of the Republic of Ireland with Northern Irish politics. There's a huge gulf between the two constituencies.
Secondly Friday's referendum was a societal issue rather than a political or religious one. Politicians from all parties took stances on both sides of the debate. Sinn Féin’s policy was to repeal the Eighth amendment and the legalisation of abortion in cases of rape, fatal foetal abnormality and where a woman’s mental or physical health is under serious threat by the continuation of the pregnancy. In that context they justifiably celebrated success.
People who voted Yes will have quite happily attended Mass this morning while people who voted No will not have darkened the door of church, mosque or synagogue for years.
The catalyst for the repeal of the 8th Amendment was the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian (and I assume Hindu) lady.
Savita Halappanavar: Her tragic death and how she became part of Ireland's abortion debate
Thirdly it amuses me to hear people refer to the Republic of Ireland as "hugely Roman Catholic". I suppose the confusion is caused by people identifying as such in Censuses, and I hold my hand up here as I automatically state my religion as RC. However like the 78% that identified as RC in the 2016 census, I am also part of the 65% who don't practice the religion on a regular basis. In 2016 only 53.7pc of marriages were in a Catholic ceremony. Other religious ceremonies accounted for about 11% while Civil marriages made up 28.5pc (6,43
of the total and there were 1,534 (6.8%) Humanist ceremonies.
The stats indicate that there's a marked decline in Roman Catholicism in the ROI. 50 years ago weekly mass attendance was 91%. The marriage stats may be slightly skewed because same sex couples and Catholic divorcees cannot marry in a church ceremony.
The problems in the Catholic Church are well documented on ARRSE but I'll just say that sexual abuse scandals, Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and so on cut the ground from under the RC church's moral authority on anything. Friday's referendum is just the latest in a series of societal advances in the ROI. It seems unbelievable now that 40 years ago condoms could not be bought in Ireland, divorce wasn't legalised until 1996 and same sex marriage in 2015.