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Moving Myths is a critical look at the Protestant and Catholic institutions in Ireland, revealing the experiences of people who have been brought up in those traditions but who now regard themselves as atheist.
These people's stories range from a woman sacked as a youth worker in Sligo because she tried to empower the young people she worked with, to the Derry priest who left the church because he opposed its teaching on contraception; from the Belfast trades unionist whose brother died in a sectarian shooting, to the woman who had to travel to England for an abortion.
None of these people are victims. They are survivors... of the churches' widespread influence. Their voices are rarely heard. This programme provides such an opportunity.
"Probably only a minority of Irish people are practising Christians" says director Cahal McLaughlin, "and yet the churches here, Protestant and Catholic have an enormous power - a power which they use to prevent people from taking more control over their own lives."
The Christian churches in Ireland - Catholic and Protestant - have an influence over everyday life, which is unique in Western Europe. Around this thesis there is both myth, for example, the conflict in Northern Ireland is a religious war; and reality, for example, abortion is illegal in both the northern and southern states. The programme demystifies that which is myth, and analyses that which is real, in order to understand the nature of the churches' power, and in turn the nature of the society within which they operate.
CATHOLIC OR PROTESTANT ATHEIST?
The finding that a majority of people in the north are not practising Christians (90% of Protestants and 57% of Catholics) refutes the myth that Irish people are 'religious fanatics'.
Precise statistics on the numbers of Protestants and Catholics are notoriously difficult to obtain. The terms Catholic and Protestant, because they often coincide with the political/cultural terms of nationalist and unionist, are still used as a form of identification. Therefore even some non-practising Christians will use these religious terms to describe themselves. Social scientists are aware of this and admit the difficulty of arriving at a definitive average. Local surveys have been carried out, particularly by the University of Ulster, but these suffer from concentrating on either rural areas, or on a particular social class, for example grammar schools, both of which provide above average church attendance. Even under these circumstances the results sometimes shatter the myth, for example, in 1984 a survey in County Derry by Dr Hickey, from the University of Ulster, found that 59% of Catholics attend church weekly, and 59% of Protestants attend church monthly. In other words 41% do not attend the minimum.
The statistics used in the programme 'Moving Myths' were taken for Des Wilson's pamphlet, 'A Political Catechism', 1988. He based them on observation and discussion with clergy and lay members of the main denominations, over a considerable period of time, from the 1950's to the present day, in urban areas, particularly Belfast and Dublin. As a priest, he had access to information and views not normally available to the rest of us.
RELIGIOUS WAR?
Another myth challenged in the programme is the notion that the conflict in the north is a religious war. The context for the division of the two communities is highlighted by Fair Employment Commission statistics which show that the basis of religion in Northern Ireland; another initiative, based on the civil rights achievements of affirmative action in the USA, has been successful in persuading 12 state legislatures and 30 cities in the USA to 'Catholics' are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than 'Protestants'.
While the British government flounders in a legislative quagmire attempting to produce a law which conspicuously fails to outlaw discrimination on adopt the far reaching anti-discrimination McBride principles. Named after the Nobel Prize winner, Sean McBride, the principles are an attempt to set goads, and monitor achievement, in fair employment practices in Northern Ireland.
THREAT TO THE CONSTITUTION?
Another area where governments, in this case both the British and Irish, have been forced to review their legislation, is on the subject of homosexuality. Both governments relied on 19th century British legislation until individual citizens took their cases to the European Court with successful outcomes. The British government was forced by the Jeff Dudgeon case, which was fought on the grounds of the right to privacy, to extend the 1967 Homosexuality Act to Northern Ireland in 1983.
The Irish government is equivocating over the need to introduce equal rights legislation for lesbians and gay men after David Norris successfully took a constitutional case against them. The Supreme Court in Dublin has tried to argue that as 'the family' was at the centre of the constitution, homosexuality, which was seen as a threat to the family, was also a threat to the constitution.
RIGHT TO CHOOSE
Another area where both the state and churches, north and south, agree is the issue of abortion. 4000 women from the south and 2000 women from the north travel to England each year to have an abortion, because it is illegal in Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Abortion Law Reform Association has campaigned for the extension of the British 1969 Act to Northern Ireland. The combined opposition of Protestant and Catholic churches, along with their influence on the political parties, has so far been successful in preventing such a liberalisation of society.
In the south of Ireland, the 1983 referendum enshrined within the constitution the right to life of the unborn, an equal status to the mother, and resulted in abortion referral services being taken to court. A recent Supreme Court decision has made it illegal to provide information about such services abroad.
Broadcast Channel 4 1989, Radio Telefis Eireann 1991. Central Soviet Television 1991. Edinburgh Fringe Film Festival 1990. Euro Aim Screenings Donostia 1990.
Produced and Directed by Cahal McLaughlin
Camera and Edit by Michael Quinn
Sound and music arrangement by Simon Wood
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