Johnny Fallon: The Vatican embassy row has touched a raw nerve with a rural constituency that is only now finding its voice
Getty Images
MANY people have expressed surprise at how the issue of the Vatican embassy has remained so high on the agenda in recent weeks. In particular people are surprised at the reaction among many Fine Gael TDs who seem to want the embassy re-opened.
Of course, many people view the issue through a particular prism or see it as an isolated decision. That is not where the TD’s who have raised it are coming from. Looked at in simple economic terms the true financial value of any embassy could be called into question, never mind one to a tiny state with no real economy. Therefore closing it should not be any issue at all and entirely at the discretion of the government. But symbolism has a lot more to do with it than that.
Let’s forget all the arguments as to why an embassy anywhere is necessary as in reality we can certainly survive without one to the Vatican. The problem is that it has become something of a pressure point in what is a war of messaging for the government. A large proportion of the Irish population are no longer practising Catholics, they resent much of the catholic influence on the state. This is gradually being rolled back. The vast majority of the population including most Catholics find the behaviour of the Church in how it dealt with paedophiles and how it ran institutions reprehensible.
The Catholic Church has done much that it should be ashamed of. This feeling is so great that there are very few people who would stand up publicly and try to defend the church or Catholicism in Ireland. However, just because that is the case it would be wrong to assume that Catholicism has died. Mass attendances may be a fraction of what the used to be, but they are still a sizeable number of people with a credible voting record who are entitled to their opinions whether one agrees with them or not.
There is a tendency to suggest that these are all just ‘old rural folk’ as if such people don’t deserve to express their opinion. Needless to say, not all Catholics fit that description either. It would be a safe bet to suggest that most Catholics are not overly put out by the closure of the Vatican embassy as a singular issue. However TD’s are very much aware of a different pressure. When the government came to power it did so at a time when the Catholic Church was at its lowest ebb and with good reason. There were rumours, however, that there were those out there that wanted the religion destroyed, wanted it removed from society and found it a bit laughable that some people still practised. In general these, rumours were exaggerated to spread a certain fear but what has happened since has caused many Catholics to pause for thought.
First, Enda Kenny made that speech condemning the Vatican. Most Catholics supported him on it but after the initial euphoria a question mark was raised as to why the speech focussed on the Vatican and not the Irish church authorities? It began to occur to many that the reason was because to have hit the Irish church authorities would have also meant that the Taoiseach would have had to question the Irish state that fully participated and benefitted from church run institutions. This was a legal minefield and a can of worms that was considered best left unopened. Therefore, the speech avoided Irish criticism and made it a spat between two states, and one was being told to butt out of the other. All fairly justifiable.
It was unfortunate for the government that this period was followed by a number of necessary but badly timed debates. The first of these came in education where growing concerns were raised about the teaching of religion in schools. Those opposed to teaching religion would rightly say that this was long overdue. However, for Catholics it seemed like an effort was being made to further remove their religion and deny them much input on it. There remain many communities that are almost entirely catholic and where no parent dissents the idea of religion being thought and the parents quite like it that way as it saves them time and effort. You can agree or disagree with that position but the parents are still entitled to want to send their child to a school and receive a catholic education.
It was in these areas that they began to feel a push was on to force a decision upon them to suit other areas where problems clearly existed. Unfortunately the Minister in charge, Ruari Quinn was not a Catholic and was also a Labour minister. For those that fear the new secularisation of society it always appeared that the Labour Party was more in favour of this than other parties. The necessity of the debate is ignored when people start to become suspicious. There was a clear lack of anyone speaking up to defend the position, as no one who was not an ultra-Catholic wanted to take the flak of being accused of being a silly religionist and a supporter of paedophiles.
There is now almost continual talk of why the Catholic influence should be removed from various facets of life. There is nothing wrong with that but people should not be surprised or dismissive to find that the pace of the discussion is alarming to others. All this was combined with a series of other decisions on hospitals, barracks, septic tanks, rural transport etc that seemed to suggest that the government did not see a viable future for rural Ireland and while unrelated to the religious debate it certainly fed it.
The decision on the Vatican embassy was just the latest blow. On its own no big deal. But it seemed to be part of a pattern; a pattern set in many peoples minds by the Labour party. It was a pattern that suggested that a new Ireland would have no place for the views of these people. That may be unfair but that it how it was perceived. The Catholic Church would be firmly put in its place and then eroded from society. The time was right and the opportunity was being taken. People who originally thought that the rumour about people not caring about rural Ireland and wanting the church destroyed was only a rumour, not started to actively fear it was true.
Fine Gael has felt the force of this. TD’s know their constituents and regular voters. These TD’s have picked up on these fears and are seeking to assure the voters that this government does not have any agenda that is anti-catholic, that it is not all cooked up by a cabal within Labour. They are not trying to undermine Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore; they are in fact, trying to stop what they see as a damaging perception that is gaining momentum. The recent portrayal of Eamon Gilmore as being the man most opposed to re-opening the Vatican embassy has not helped this cause.
Have no doubt that the government will not lose big chunks of its vote over this alone, and it will not cause the majority of voters much thought. However, when broken down to constituency level, some TDs realise that while they have not taken a hit they have opened up their tight defences and are now vulnerable to a possible attack.
Johnny Fallon is a political consultant
