Church & State is a quarterly magazine which has the aim of assisting the restoration of the Young Ireland tradition of inclusive nationalism.

When the magazine was established thirty years ago, the Republic of Ireland was a uniquely Catholic state, with Catholicism having a greater social force than in France or Italy since the Middle Ages, or in Spain since the 18th century.

These countries all developed popular anti-clerical movements and had periods of anti-clerical government, largely because the Catholic Church associated itself with monarchy and political reaction. Ireland has developed along different lines with the Church often allied with the progressive forces. After the demoralisation of Irish life by the disruption of Gaelic society, the Penal Laws, and the Famine, the Church—now an ultramontane institution—the Church under Cardinal Cullen took the society in hand propagating an uncomplicated form of Catholicism with an unprecedented level of clerical power.

Church & State magazine established itself as a forum for those discontented with this state of affairs with a view of developing a coherent outlook for the dissidents. And it has to be said that its work has helped along the transformation of Irish public life. Indeed, it helped bring into being what can only be described as a cultural revolution.

Mainstream Catholic Ireland now accepts a vastly more limited social role for the Church than it did thirty years ago, and the Church has forfeited the position of automatic respect which it held for a century and half.

Thirty years ago the magazine said it would be drawing attention to individuals who resisted the growth of Catholic nationalism in Ireland—for example, Thomas Moore, M.J.F. McCarthy and Canon Sheehan. That work was done and will continue, but the magazine will now move on to promoting an alternative national culture. There can be no doubt that the Catholic Church—under popular supervision—will remain an important element in that culture, along with other Churches and other worthwhile institutions such as the GAA, the National Council for Liberties and the Council for Women.

Modern Ireland is and must remain Irish: it was never part of the Church & State programme to introduce British imperial values along with the liberalism the magazine pioneered.

In the future the magazine will continue where appropriate to espouse secular reforms in public life particularly in education, the social services, and the legal system, but its main focus will be to reconcile traditional values with modern life.

Most Recent Update: Tuesday, May 6, 2008