IN AN article in this column in April, the Rev Prof Michael Nolan argued that the State is more important than the Catholic Church in fashioning the beliefs and identity of Irish citizens. Although there seems to me to be some truth in this, the roles of Church and State are not as separate as is assumed by Prof Nolan.
But firstly let me point out that, governments usually endeavour to cultivate a sense of national identity in their citizens. States have always considered this part of their mission. For example, at the time of the Reformation, rulers assumed for themselves the authority to "command for truth" and to educate. They then used this newly appropriated authority to promote a uniform cultural and religious identity which would serve to integrate the inhabitants of their kingdoms.
A similar project is in train today to promote the notion of a European civic and cultural identity. Through the use of a more extravagant proselytism than ever was used to create nation states in the past, an attempt is being made to add a further layer of political allegiance to the loyalties of citizens of nations which already have long civic traditions of their own. We are encouraged to believe that a contrived notion of European citizenship is necessary to secure reasonable and practical co-operation between nations.
There is, however, something unusual in the beliefs and commitments which the Irish State fosters in its citizens. This is their religious aspect which people from outside the country often find particularly striking. The religious dimension derives from the intimate connection between Irish culture and Christianity rather than because the State is doing the work of the church.
The relationship between culture and religion has resulted in what the historian Colm Lennon has described as a "seamlessness of the sacred and secular spheres" in Irish life. By prescribing a curriculum which includes Irish, history, geography and literature, the State automatically ensures that young people are introduced simultaneously to both their national and religious heritages. It is simply unavoidable.
ONE obvious illustration of the seamlessness of the sacred and secular in Ireland is to be found in the language itself a subject which is compulsory throughout all the years of schooling. Such expressions as Dia dhuit, Dia's Muire dhuit, Dia's Muire dhuit's Padraig and Beannacht De ort communicate something of the theocentric quality of the Irish mindset. The theological orientation of this mindset is also tellingly evoked in the use of the wonderfully sensitive term duine le Dia.
The invocations of God have a reality in these idioms which is certainly lost in the English "goodbye" and the Spanish "adios". To be sure, there are many common expressions such as buiochas le Dia, le cunamh De bail o dhia ar an obair or go cumhdai Dia sibh, which can be replaced by secular idioms just as it is possible to avoid using the express ion "Gruss Gott", with its religious connotations, which can still be heard in parts of Germany. Nevertheless, it would be quite impossible to speak Irish without using some theological idiom.
The study of history reveals the prominence of the religious dimension in Irish life. For example, in pre-Reformation Ireland the vitality of religious practice and the absence of anti-clericalism were such as to lead commentators to note that the "Irish are very attentive to religious matters". As a result it was not necessary to re-animate the religious commitment and practice of the population this is one of the reasons given for the failure of the Reformation in Ireland.
History also shows how the religious aspect of Irish culture became linked to the secular and the political aspects. Resistance by Gaelic Ireland to attempts by the English Crown to promote the Reformation led to an identification of Catholicism with freedom from foreign interference. This in turn prompted the development of a version of national consciousness which saw a fusing of religious, political and cultural elements. The later years of the 16th, century heralded the emergence of the tradition of Catholic nationhood which has endured to the present.
Conversely, the later Plantation of Ulster was to lead to the emergence of a Protestant version of Irishness which was eventually (particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries) to associate its British political identity with Protestantism.
For these reasons the political and cultural identity of many Irish people has been associated with religion. Does all of this mean that the Irish, must inescapably come to see their identity in national and religious terms? Of course not.
It is possible for people to come to see their identity largely or even exclusively in other than national terms. This will include individuals who come to see their cultural identity in terms of a locality or a region (Ulster, Dublin or Connemara) or in, terms of a large supranational entity such as a united Europe.
IT will also include those who, may come to see themselves rootless cosmopolitans without focus of geographical allegiance. Yet the culture of the national community into which one is born is a part of one's identity which cannot be renounced without leaving its residue. James Joyce, for example, who chose to live in exile and who trenchantly renounced his native land, remained culturally and psychologically very much an Irishman.
Likewise, although they live in a country where Christianity is deeply inculturated, Irish people do not have to become or to remain Christians. But the embeddedness of religion in Irish culture means that an encounter with religion is not something which can normally be avoided.
As a result, individuals have to choose what their attitude will be to religious belief which, rather than being relegated to the strictly private sphere, enjoys a place in the nation's culture. Although religious belief can be accepted or rejected, the presence of religious sensibility in Irish culture is an enrichment to be cherished and celebrated.
