A European country like any other

Ireland's economic success has helped its society to grow up

THE stereotype of Irish backwardness 30 or 40 years ago had much truth in it. The influence of the land was strong in a country where as late as 1973 one-quarter of the population was engaged in farming. In De Valera's time the Catholic Church's power was vast, and it lingered on into the 1980s. No politician could contemplate proposing a law without winning the approval of the Catholic hierarchy. Divorce, abortion and most forms of birth control were in effect illegal. Education was patchy at best: even into the 1960s, people had to pay for secondary schooling.

Irish society was also deeply patriarchal. Women were second-class citizens who were expected to stay at home and have babies. Many husbands would go abroad for long periods to work, and immigration was almost unknown. Ireland continued to define itself largely against Britain, by far its biggest trading partner and the recipient of most of its emigrants. The great famine of the 1840s proved an enduring influence.

But as the country has become richer over the past two decades, all this has changed. Divorce was legalised only in 1995 and abortion remains illegal in most circumstances, but Irish family life has evolved to look more like the rest of Europe's. The birth rate has tumbled, and many more married women are at work. The abortion rate is estimated to have risen from around 4.5% of pregnancies in 1980 to over 10% in 2002 (mostly carried out in Britain); over the same period, births out of wedlock have soared from 5% to 31% of the total. The divorce rate is creeping up.

Crime and violence are on the rise. Ireland has turned from a country of emigration into one of immigration, and although as many as one-third of the immigrants have Irish roots (or are former emigrants returning home), many now come from farther afield and look recognisably foreign in Dublin's streets. The country has also had a big influx of people from central and eastern Europe. In restaurants and bars, even in cities such as Cork and Galway, the staff often hail from such countries as Slovakia or (non-EU) Croatia.

As for religion, although almost 90% of the population still claim that they are Catholic, the Catholic Church is not the force it was. It fought hard against the legalisation of divorce, but lost decisively. It is hard to imagine the church in its heyday tolerating a taoiseach living with a woman who was not his wife, as Mr Ahern did for many years.

Like its counterpart in America, the Catholic Church in Ireland through the 1990s was beset by a series of sex scandals involving priests and boys, or children's homes run by religious orders. One bishop had to resign after seeming to cover up for abusive priests. Some 18 religious orders were landed with compensation bills that may reach €128m (though the state helped by taking on all additional liabilities).

The new Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who recently returned to Ireland after long service abroad, concedes that the church has gone through difficult times, but insists that it is still one of the strongest in Europe. In many ways he welcomes “modernisation”: in particular, the ending of the church's long entanglement with politics. The archbishop sees a big role for the church in tackling Ireland's growing social problems: he notes more violence, more drug and alcohol abuse, and greater selfishness than before he went abroad.

Yet the church suffers from long-term weaknesses. As with the Protestant Church of Ireland, which claims about 5% of the population, congregations and priests alike are ageing. Archbishop Martin recalls that when he was ordained in the diocese of Dublin in 1969, there were 13 other ordinands. Last year there was one. Next year, there will be none. The archbishop says he does not want to preside over a dying church; he talks ruefully of Catholicism becoming a “minority culture” in Ireland. In many ways, after years of sectarian conflict, religion now plays a bigger role north of the border.

It is not only churchmen who regret Ireland's growing secularism. David Quinn, a journalist at the daily Irish Independent, points to rising drug and alcohol consumption, a sharp increase in suicides, a greater incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and a growing “yob culture”. He suggests that with the decline of religion, society has lost a moral compass.

Yet Michael McDowell, the thoughtful Progressive Democrat justice minister, says it would be wrong to hanker after the good old days: “They weren't that good.” The social changes that attract criticism are common across Europe, he suggests. And curtailing people's liberties would be the wrong response. Admittedly, Ireland earlier this year became the first EU country to ban smoking in pubs and restaurants, but the government sees that as a health issue, not a matter of civil liberties.

Left-leaning commentators criticise the government for presiding over rising poverty and inequality. Much fuss was made over a recent UN report suggesting that Ireland had become more unequal during its tiger years, and was now one of the most unequal countries in Europe. The figures are a matter of dispute, but in any event Mr McDowell offers a robust defence. Fifteen years ago, he says, political conversation was about economic failure and poverty. Since then, absolute poverty has fallen sharply. He sees inequality as an inevitable part of the society of incentives that Ireland has, thankfully, become.

His party leader, Mary Harney, puts the emphasis on equality of opportunity, not equality per se. She also symbolises another huge change for the better in Ireland: its treatment of women. A generation ago they were second-class citizens. Now not only is the tanaiste female, but so is the president, Mary McAleese - as was her immediate predecessor, Mary Robinson. Far more women are working, and some are starting to rise to the top in business.

Looking which way?

What do all these social changes add up to? A few years ago, Ms Harney caused a stir with an address that became known as her Boston v Berlin speech. In it she claimed that, because its success was rooted in lower taxes and other free-market policies, Ireland, though geographically closer to Berlin, was spiritually closer to Boston. It is an appealing thesis.

Yet in social terms, the Boston v Berlin thesis looks wrong. In every area where Ireland has seen social change - secularisation, the growth of public health and welfare systems, trends in crime, drug and alcohol abuse, changing family patterns, increased migration - the shift has brought it closer to Europe than to America. By European standards the Irish tax burden is low, but it is still well above America's. Thanks to cheap flights (notably through Ryanair, a young airline that has made a big contribution to social change in Ireland), many more people travel from Ireland to Britain and continental Europe than go to America.

Indeed, in many ways the place that Ireland most resembles now is not America; it is Britain - but with a pro-European stance. Many British politicians think their country should become more detached from Europe, or even become more firmly attached to America. Yet in Ireland, despite Ms Harney's Boston v Berlin thesis, nobody would dream of suggesting such a move. Which is not to say that nationalist feeling is weaker than in Britain. The country's efforts to promote the Gaelic language belie that. Yet in practice as opposed to sentiment, Gaelic is still declining. When one minister was confronted by protesters demanding that Gaelic be made an official EU language, he went to talk to them - only to discover that they themselves did not speak the language.

As if to demonstrate its European credentials, Ireland is even metricating its road signs. Driving west of Cork, your correspondent spotted a sign reading: “Speed limit: 60km per hour for the next five miles.” Naturally, nobody took much notice. Ireland will surely retain its charms and foibles, though its growing tourist industry will not be helped by the ugly houses sprouting across open countryside or the salmon farms that jeopardise its glorious wild salmon and salmon-trout runs.

The point about Ireland is not that people have become rich, though many have. Nor is it that, in just ten years, it has undergone a modernisation and secularisation that took other countries several times as long, though it has. No, the really big thing is that, 30 years after joining Europe, Ireland has grown up. No longer does it suffer from a lack of confidence or excessive touchiness about Britain. Instead, it has become like any other well-off European country, with reasonable if not outstanding growth prospects and a recognisably European social mix. On the whole, this is a vast change for the better - even if some traditionalists may mourn it.

Ireland's economic success has helped its society to grow up.

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