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Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change, 1970-2000

Not the place it used to be

R. F. Foster
Penguin, 240pp, £20,

Paul Bew

Wednesday, 17th October 2007

Paul Bew

There are times when Professor Foster’s approach will offend because of its occasional brisk dismissiveness — even, perhaps, a certain condescension. For example, in his brilliant chapter ‘How the Catholics Became Protestants’, he discusses D. Vincent Twomey’s book The End of Irish Catholicism (Veritas, 2003). Foster notes, not without justice, that ‘the television set had become the confessional box’, and drily comments on the inability of traditional Catholics to come to terms with

the appalling record of sexual exploitation by clerics … It is striking, indeed semi-miraculous, that in a book by the editor of the Irish Theological Quarterly published in 2003 and called The End of Irish Catholicism, there is much about the dangers of the liberal agenda and not a single word about scandals.

In fact, Twomey’s book does refer to this problem (p. 33), stating inter alia:

Why did no one do anything about these horror stories? Why did everyone keep silent? Why did so many conform? Why was there such a singular lack of moral courage? Perhaps it was the heavy price paid for becoming in effect the established Church of a fledgling and impoverished State.

Foster is, however, excellent on the final negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement. Alastair Campbell’s much-maligned diaries actually confirm his account of the operation of that ethnic see-saw. In particular it is important to understand that Blair made a conscious decision to preserve the centre ground, and it is this which allowed him to achieve the Good Friday triumph — a point worth stressing these days when there is so much emphasis on dialogue with extremes as the way forward in peace processes. In 1998 the moderate parties established a template which, despite their subsequent electoral defeat, the extremes have been compelled to endorse.

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