In a time when the nation was torn apart by financial difficulties the church were encouraging families to have more and more kids. Twelve children wouldn’t be a rare event in an Irish family the church would encourage people in church every Sunday to have more knowing that families could not afford to have them and then not give them any help or support.

They would do this because they were lead to believe that if they did what the priest they would have a place in heaven. The real reason was that in fact if the priests parish expanded that their wages would too, and they would be able to ask for more money for projects for their parish, which they did and kept it to do up their houses or the churches. Very little if any money was put into the parish the church had such control over towns and villages, that the farmers had to pay up money for the upkeep of the churches and the priests houses not knowing that they had already been paid by the church.

I guess I should be thankful that I didn’t grow up back then because I would have a few things to say. How naïve do people have to be to follow a religion that is practically telling you what to do and how to live and how many children to have. If you didn’t live by the churches laws you were turned against by your community, you have to remember that in Ireland back then you only really socialised at church and hops as they were known back then, known now as disco’s, were all set up by the church run by the church. The men would have to stand at one side of the room and the women on the other side. All they were aloud do was talk to each other. You can forget about grabbing a boob or a kiss or any thing like that.

You were only aloud dance on separate sides of the room. Unless you were married you couldn’t have children if you did you would be branded a whore and the child taken away from you. The church that took your child would sell it to another country, such as America or England or some other part of the world. The church saw the child to be good enough to make a profit but not good enough for its own family. I have a friend that was born in the eighties his parents weren’t married the church got involved and took him until the parents got married and they had to adopt their own child back. What religion would practice this sort of thing.

When radio came into play it was all prayers every hour and news in between hosted again by the church. This went on into the nineties in Ireland we had three radio stations all run by the church it wasn’t until the nineties that things changed. When television came about guess what, this too was run by the church, they regulated the only two channels we had I’m 25 and I remember this vividly. They would turn off transmission at twelve o clock every night and guess what finish on a prayer. If your ever in Ireland they still do this with their original channels. RTE 1 and Network 2.

The church lost the grip of the Irish people in the eighties simply because the Irish people had a new generation and they were not taking anymore of their bullshit rules. We got cable T.V and everything changed we got to see the world the way the world should be seen . The first thing I saw on international T.V was the Berlin wall coming down on the 9th of November 1989. I’m sure if the church had it their way they would tell us they have built on to it or nothing about it at all. The launch of television freed the Irish people to be honest, and I challenge anyone who disagrees.

School life in Ireland was again run by the church but the rules were different than it is now. The brothers as they were known as were teachers and use to beat the children if they didn’t do homework or didn’t know something. I don’t know what enjoyment they go out of it but that’s what they use to do. I remember my father telling me that his generation use to get beaten if they stepped out of line in any way shape or form. Boarding schools were run by the church too these were filled with children taken from their parents because their parents weren’t married or they were orphaned.

My mother was one of these orphans it wasn’t long before she found my grandmother picking her up at the age of one not her birth mother I might add. My mothers spent her first few days sleeping in a drawer. This was only arranged because my grandmother use to be a nun in the Irish church if it wasn’t for this fact she would have probably been sold off. My mothers father was an orphan too he grew up in a boarding school. Before he died when my mother was only 13 he told her stories of what went on there saying that the boys were being sexually abused and living conditions were dire for any ones standards of living.

I see now that the church is in dire straights people are turning away from them as the sex abuse cases increase. If you ask me they asked for it. There are less and less people going into be priests because people just don’t want to have the name to carry around on their shoulders this job comes with a label these days in Ireland. We have to look abroad for priests we can thrust there are African priests teaching and saying mass in Ireland now simply because of this fact. You might hear other wise from somewhere else and thrust me when I say this, its probably the church that fabricated it.

Hope this shines a light on life in Ireland before the sixties.