History of The Republic of Ireland - National Scandals

National Scandals

Part of the reason why, by the 1990s, social liberalisaton was widely accepted was that the Catholic Church was hit by a very damaging series of scandals in that decade. The revelation that one senior Catholic bishop, Eamon Casey, fathered a child by a divorcée caused a major reaction, as did the discovery of child abuse by a large number of clerics, notably the infamous paedophile Father Brendan Smyth (the incompetent handling of a request for the extradition of Smyth brought down an Irish government in 1994). Another bishop, McGee, subsequently resigned over his mishandling of child abuse cases in his diocese. It was also revealed, in the 2000s, after an enquiry, the Ryan Commission, that there had been widespread physical and sexual abuse of children in the Church-run industrial schools and orphanages from the 1920s until the 1960s. These were institutions which were set up to house children of unmarried or poor parents. In some cases, it was revealed, these children had been forcibly removed from their parents by the state and put into institutions where they were badly fed and clothed and in some cases beaten and raped.

All of these revelations very deeply damaged the moral authority of the Catholic Church. While other factors have also played a role, the scandals in the Catholic Church have contributed to a steep decline in church attendance among Irish Catholcs. While in 1991, 92% of the Republic's population identified themselves as Roman Catholics, by 2006 this had dropped to 86%. More starkly, whereas in 1990, 85% of Catholics attended mass weekly, by 2008 this had fallen to 43% among Catholics and 40% of the population in general. (See also Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland)

Also in the 1990s, a series of tribunals began inquiring into major allegations of corruption against senior politicians. Ray Burke, who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1997 was gaoled on charges of tax evasion in January 2005. The Beef Tribunal in the early 1990s found that that major food companies, notably in Iraq had been given preferential treatment by the Fianna Fáil government in return for donations to that party. Former Taoisaighs Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern were also brought before Tribunals to explain their acceptance of very large personal donations of money to them by private businessmen.