A Challenge to Democracy

Charting the growth, development, and influence of Militant Catholicism on 20th-century Ireland Militant Catholicism refers to radical Catholic believers who believed that the only way for Ireland to remain a Catholic country was to combine together in lay organizations, to work in politics and society for the overthrow of the Protestant culture, and to replace it with a strictly Catholic ethos. This history examines how in the newly independent Ireland, Militant Catholicism played a crucial role in asserting the Catholic Church's influence on both politics and society, and was pivotal in helping to shape and consolidate public opinion, in copper-fastening the Catholic-Irish identity, and in helping to enshrine the moral code in Irish law. It also had a resounding impact on the drafting of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. Moreover, its influence is discussed in the growth of democracy and the political party system in Ireland; in the ideologies embraced by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Clann na Poblachta; and consequently on governments' social and economic policies.