Gay revolution?

This country is, you have guessed, quite conservative on social subjects. There are numerous examples in the very recent past that would reflect reality in the 1960's in Scandinavia. For example, until 1966 female civil servants had to quit their job when they were getting married. Condoms were banned up to 1973 (there are several testimonies about how the Irish customs were searching people's bags when they were coming from abroad), homosexuality was prosecutable until 1993, divorce was legalised in 1996, and abortion is still forbidden.

But this society is changing at an extremely fast pace. Since the country opened up and began developping economically, a dramatic evolution has taken place. For example, Ireland is becoming more secular. The Church, who had the power over all matters has been losing its influence for the past 15 years. Fewer and fewer people attend mass for example. The abuses on children stained the outrageous prestige that the Church had had for so many years, the priest is not seen as the pillar on any family gathering or main counsellor anymore. In short, Ireland is becoming more tolerant, more opened (I don't want to show off but I would like to think it is thanks to immigrants too ;-) and a revolution in such a traditional country is in gear: gay couples will soon be recognised by law.

The government announced at the end of last year that they would legislate in order to give rights (inheritance, taxes and all administrative matters) to same-sex couples (I don't know if they are thinking about introducing that for straight couples who don't want to get married but that is another story). There are a couple of (important) issues:

- The legislation will not be marriage. As the campaign MarriagEquality is pointing out, the government is actually going to legislate in favour of discrimination. Straight = marriage / Gay = civil partnership. The PACS in France did exactly the same though, but it doesn't make the whole thing right
- Children: there was no talk about this at all. Apparently the Irish way of ignoring an issue is actually.. ignoring it, until it becomes big enough for the media to talk about it.

For a country like Ireland, the step is absolutely huge. Some might say that gay people are never happy even when a law is passed to recognise their rights. But is a law supposed to create a category of second-class citizens and say basically "no, you're not good enough to get married"?. "Sorry man, you are not entitled to drive a car because you're blonde, but you are allowed to try the bicycle". This is (far-stretched I acknowledge) the kind of inequality the law is going to allow. This is preposterous.

To treat the subject a lighter way, I found this on this:

Ten reasons why Gay marriage in Un-American

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

The fallen women

I am currently working on a feminist walking tour of Dublin to celebrate the International Women's Day on March 8th. I am in charge of taking pictures of some monuments remembering Irish women's history. One of the saddest part of this history is the Magdalene laundries.
Maybe you know about it because you have seen Peter Mullan's film, The Magdalene sisters (if you haven't, try to have a look).

During 150 years (the last one closed in Ireland in 1996), around 30,000 "fallen women" were admitted in those homes. Those girls and women usually spent their whole life in the institution, paying for their "crimes". The laundries were given this name because of Mary Magdalene, a woman of "bad reputation" who confessed her sins and became a devout.

Those women were imprisoned for behaviours severely condemned by the extremely powerful Church: getting pregnant outside of marriage, leaving their abusive husband, being raped etc. You could even find yourself there if you were with a mental disability. Those women were then condemned to do all kinds of work like cleaning the clergy's laundry, cooking, cleaning and looking after ageing nuns. This work was not paid, and the conditions were appalling, the women often abused and badly treated. The women were sometimes losing their name too, the nuns giving them simili biblical repentant names (such as "Magdalene St Teresa"). They were usually admitted to the asylum (another name for those prisons) on one parent's request. A lot of them remained in those houses all their life and were buried in the convent's garden.

In 1993 (I do say again that the last laudry had not been closed at this time yet), remains of 133 bodies had to be removed from one of the laundries' garden because the nuns were selling the property. The permission to take the bodies was given by the Department of Environment. The undertakers discovered 22 additional bodies that had never been declared. The authorities, instead of opening an enquiry on the matter, gave permission to the nuns for the 22 additional bodies. Those 155 bodies were later cremated and reburied in a mass grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, on the North Side of Dublin. This triggered a public scandal and revelations about the conditions of work and detention began to appear. Relatives to women who had been in a laundry began asking for the truth, and a lot of documentaries and testimonies were produced. We still don't know though who the women buried now in Glasnevin were. Their cremation prevented any hope for identification.

The victims of those asylums are numerous and a lot of them are unknown. Their illegitimate children were stolen from them and given for adoption or sent to "indutrial schools" or orphanages, ruled as well by brothers and nuns, and there as well the children were badly treated (the sexual and physical abuses were common).
The buildings, the graves, the stories of those women are still standing. The only monument in Dublin commerating those women's memory is this plaque is the centre of St Stephen's Green. They would deserve so much more.





If you want to know more:
http://www.adoptionireland.com/magdalene/background.html
This is the detailed story around the graves discovered in Drumcondra, Dublin
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/08/sunday/main567365.shtml Another article by the American press
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/so-much-for-church-remorse-over-the-sex-abuse-scandal-1280595.html This is on the various sexual abuses scandals. The former arbishop of Dublin refuses to give away documents relating to those.