Throughout the twentieth century, Ireland was known for its conservative social policies. When the rest of Europe was adopting liberal measures, Ireland held a firm stance against contraception, abortion, and divorce. These stances were inextricably linked to the close connection between the Roman Catholic Church and the Irish government. The early leaders of the Irish Free State wanted it that way; they consciously sought connections with the Catholic hierarchy in order to help establish the legitimacy of their government with the Irish people.

Ireland held firm to its traditional values for most of the century, but the winds of change blew in with the 1960s. When Ireland began to establish closer ties with the EEC and EU, many Irish people began to think their laws should be more in line with the general trends of European progressive values. The rise of feminist thought provided counterpoints to many of the patriarchal values of the Irish government. Some Irish also believed that a more distinct line between the government and the Catholic Church would help ease tensions between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Contraception

Catholics are taught that sexual intercourse should take place only for the purpose of procreation; the use of contraceptives to prevent conception is an immoral act. For decades, the government of Ireland made it illegal to import or sell contraceptives. In 1966, however, the United Nations declared it a basic human right for an individual to control his or her own fertility. Although the government resisted this idea, many Irish people — particularly women — agreed.

There were numerous cases of Irish families who had been reduced to poverty by having more children than they could support, or of women whose health was wrecked by having ten or even twenty children. Public opinion decided that if family planning could improve people's lives, then it wasn't immoral. In the late 1960s doctors began prescribing birth control pills to married women, ostensibly for health reasons. In the early 1970s it became legal for married couples to buy condoms, provided they had a prescription. Over the next two decades the laws were relaxed to the point where people can now purchase condoms in vending machines.

Abortion

The struggle over abortion has been one of the most acrimonious issues in contemporary Irish politics. Abortion has never been legal in Ireland (except in cases where the mother's life is at risk), and that does not appear likely to change in the near future. The controversy has been over whether women should be allowed to travel abroad for abortions, and whether they should be able receive information about it from medical professionals. Although it is difficult to get exact statistics, it is thought that a few thousand women every year travel to England to get an abortion. For the most part, the Irish government has been willing to ignore this practice.

In 1992, however, a case exploded that could not be ignored. A fourteen-year-old girl referred to as “X” by the media was raped by a family acquaintance and became pregnant. Her parents planned to take her to England for an abortion, but they wanted to bring back fetal tissue to use in the prosecution of their daughter's assailant. When they asked the police about this, the police turned the issue over to the district attorney's office, which declared that the girl could not leave the country specifically to receive an abortion. The parents sued for the right to take her abroad.

The conflict created a national scandal. Although most Irish people opposed abortion in most situations, they generally supported the girl's right to end a pregnancy that seemed so wrong. European Union officials complained that a free government did not have the right to inhibit its citizens' travel in that way. Eventually, government officials allowed her to leave under the pretext that the girl was suicidal, thereby allowing the traditional exception concerning the life of the mother.

The issue wasn't over. In 1993, conservative leaders proposed a constitutional change that would have made it illegal for women to travel abroad for abortions. The referendum failed, but it's interesting to note that 40 percent of voters supported the amendment. For the time being, the situation is much like it was before Case X, with thousands of women traveling to England for secret abortions.

Divorce

Divorce has been another political hotspot in recent years. The Catholic Church opposes divorce on the grounds that marriage is a lifelong sacrament. While the Church does allow annulments — an official declaration that the marriage never took place — the policy has been unwieldy in practice and does not resolve the tricky legal disputes that divorces create. The legal complications have been one of the main reasons why Ireland has opposed divorce; in a country where the family farm is paramount and the husband owns all property by default, the government has been reluctant to tackle the issue of community property.

Over the last few decades, however, it became clear that Ireland had thousands of broken marriages, just like every other country in Europe. It seemed to many people that Ireland was dodging the problem by declaring that it didn't exist. In 1986 the country held a referendum to make divorce legal, but it failed by a fairly substantial vote. In 1996, pressured by EU policies on divorce and property rights, Ireland held a second referendum, which passed by a tiny margin. Divorce is now legal, but there are still many people who view it as the wrong decision.