the journal of cross border studies in ireland - The Centre for Cross ...

speak with admiration of a politician waswhen he was invited to Dublin Castle byJohn Bruton´s government for a dinnerin honour of Prince Charles, and henoticed at the very end of the eveningBruton standing casually talking topeople while drinking a pint of Guinnesswith some of his shirt hanging out, nolackies around or sense of pomposityabout him. He mentioned this severaltimes with amused approval. He lovedthe absence of preening self importancein Bruton, something he saw inabundance in other politicians whom hehad grown up with.In 1992 I asked John McGahern for apiece for a book of new writing fromIreland that I was editing. He told methat he had written a piece aboutCatholicism, that he had finally set downin words his feelings about the church.He had said to me a number of timesthat what North and South in Irelandhad in common was a sort of insecurityin how both states came into being thatcaused them to vie with each other tobecome even more sectarian, one aninsecure Unionist state, the other aninsecure Catholic state. I presumed thathis essay would dwell on that. I wassurprised by the essay, by how personalit was, and how wise and forgiving.It began ´I was born into Catholicism asI might have been born in to Buddhismor Protestantism or any of the otherisms or sects, and brought up as aRoman Catholic in the infancy of thissmall state when the Church had almosttotal power. It was the dominating forcein my whole upbringing, educationand early working life. I have nothingbut gratitude for the spiritual remnantsof that upbringing, the sense of ourorigins beyond the bounds of sense, anawareness of mystery and wonderment,grace and sacrament, and the absoluteequality of all women and menunderneath the sun of heaven. That isall that now remains. Belief as such haslong gone.´McGahern was concerned that theCatholic Church in Ireland in thetwentieth century would be seenas Proust saw the French CatholicChurch in the eighteenth century,when he described it as ´the refuge ofignoramuses´. He himself, despite thedamage it had done to him, did notsee it like that. In his essay he wroteabout the uplifting and exalting natureof Catholic ceremony, but did not ignorethe issue of Catholic authority, addingthat ´much of the power that the Churchhad in my youth has now gone in theSouth. In the North the power andstructures have hardly changed at all,held in place by the glue of intertribalhatred and distrust.´It hardly needs saying that McGahernviewed this intertribal hatred anddisgust with horror. The idea for him ofattacking your own neighbours was avery shocking idea. He would say thatif only people in Northern Ireland couldimprove their manners, then they mightstop shooting each other, or when thatstopped, hating each other or dislikingeach other in ways that caused pain orthe slightest form of civil disturbance.McGahern himself was capable of greatdislikes, but he saw no reason whyanyone should stretch personal dislikeinto the public realm in any way; he sawno reason why he could not pass people28JOURNAL OF CROSS BORDER STUDIES IN IRELAND No.5