Daly, Eoin --- "Religion in the constitutional order of the Republic of Ireland" [2012] ELECD 1284; in Cumper, Peter; Lewis, Tom (eds), "Religion, Rights and Secular Society" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 76

Book Title: Religion, Rights and Secular Society

Editor(s): Cumper, Peter; Lewis, Tom

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803670

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Religion in the constitutional order of the Republic of Ireland

Author(s): Daly, Eoin

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

The relationship between law and religion in the Republic of Ireland is unusual and interesting. It is set within an apparent paradox: that of a notoriously close church–state relationship in the political and institutional practice of the independent state, juxtaposed against a broadly liberal constitutional framework that accords ostensibly strong priority to religious freedom and equality on religious grounds. The historically close relationship between the Irish state and the Roman Catholic Church was constructed on a largely informal basis, which finds no clear footing in the constitutional and legislative framework pertaining to religion. The quasi-establishment of the dominant church throughout the earlier part of the state’s history was facilitated, rather than being actively stipulated or formalised, by the constitutional text. Indeed, as will be seen, this elusive constitutional compromise allowed for a mediation of the two distinct traditions of Irish nationalism: the secular republican tradition represented by the Jacobin-influenced, anti-sectarian revolutionaries of the eighteenth century; and the romantic Gaelic nationalism that associated Irish identity with Christianity and, to some extent, more specifically with Roman Catholicism. Thus, a recurrent theme in this chapter is the tension, in the constitutional framework, between a liberal and republican heritage that emphasises equality before the law and therefore leans against religious ‘establishments’, and a parallel tendency to promote recognition of the determinate religious needs and traditions of the people.