Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »
Sat 12 Dec 2009'I have nothing but gratitude for the spiritual remnants of that upbringing'
In this edited extract from John McGahern’s 1993 essay, ‘The Church and its Spire’, recently reprinted in the posthumous collection, ‘Love of the World’, the novelist recalls growing up in Ireland at a time when ‘the Church had almost total power’
I WAS born into Catholicism as I might have been born into Buddhism or Protestantism or any of the other isms or sects, and brought up as a Roman Catholic in the infancy of this small state when the Church had almost total power: it was the dominating force in my whole upbringing, education and early working life.
Choose a Subscription type - required
