FROM THE ARCHIVES:Moral decadence was worse than ever in Ireland in the mid-1920s and young people were fatally sure of themselves, according to this editorial. - JOE JOYCE
Democracy is more prudish in Ireland than, perhaps, anywhere else in the world. There are social evils which Irishmen discuss freely in private; but the most guarded examination of them is deprecated in public, and, for the the most part, Press and pulpit are content to respect this conspiracy of silence.
It is a foolish attitude, and we are glad that the Reverend Robert Devane, SJ, has disturbed it by his evidence before the Free State Poor Law Commission. Our country – in spite of the legend propagated by Daniel O’Connell and nourished by many other flatterers of the public ear – never was free from sexual vice.
Dublin, like every other large city, always has known a traffic in immorality. Not so many years ago its street of ill fame was among the most notorious in Europe. Such professional vice still exists, though, to some extent, the increasing vigilance of the police authorities has driven it under the surface.
In general, the national morals are looser today than they were 20 years ago. The restraints of family life have been relaxed here, as everywhere; and in Ireland that laxity has been aggravated by the effects of our recent years of social and political disorder.
The Churches have lost much of their old influence over the young. The craze for amusement has induced late hours and extravagance, and the young generation is ready to take many risks. Symptoms of this moral decadence are the increase of the drinking habit among girls and those “all night dances” which the Roman Catholic Hierarchy denounces annually at Lent.
When vice keeps company with ignorance the common result is disgrace and misery. We venture to say that an honest statement of the present ravages of venereal disease in Ireland would startle the public conscience. Certainly life in Ireland today has new pitfalls for lads and girls.
It is true, as Father Devane told the Poor Law Commission on Thursday, that there are streets and roads in Dublin through which respectable women cannot pass after nightfall without danger of insult.
Father Devane made proposals for the protection of young women from the assaults of vice and for the help of those who have yielded to temptation. He suggested that the “age of consent”, now 16, should be raised to 18 – a reform which would have our entire approval.
He suggested also that the Dáil should consider legislation for the granting of affiliation orders, for an amendment of the Bastardy Act which would abolish “baby farming”, for the admission of bastards to legitimacy under certain conditions and for the more effective suppression of brothels. Father Devane’s tackling of a painful problem puts the country in his debt, and we hope that his evidence will stir the Free State government to action.
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