Telling all
Will there be a point at which the sheer volume of scandal tips the balance, when everyone finally realises that vice is the norm and virtue really rather unusual? What will happen then? A Donahue show in which moderate souls shock viewers with revelations that they have never had an abortion, sex outside marriage, a joint at a party? And not only that, but for three generations, their family has had no incidence of incest, alcoholism or drug abuse! Hushed silence in the studio audience. Millions shake their heads in disbelief.
That seems to be a way off. In the meantime, public figures continue to urge clean living during the day while entering the underworld of normal life — much more interesting — during the night. And continue to be surprised when found out, with the media dutifully reporting each case as an aberration.
Hypocrisy continues to rule, but only just. In the Irish Catholic Church, the truth appears to be about to blast through centuries of damage control: a rebel priest, sacked after clashes with church authorities, has declared that there are others with stories similar to that of the bishop of Galway, the "celibate" who fathered a now 17-year-old son. (The son has already appeared on Donahue.)
Meanwhile, there are the thousands of untold stories of Irish women who — at the rate of at least 5000 a year since the mid-'60s — make their way to Britain to commit the sin of abortion, about which they are expected to maintain public silence. At that rate (the population of the Irish Republic is only 3 million), a majority of families have probably been touched by this particular brand of "scandal".
Their silence is demanded by law: in Ireland it is illegal to let anyone know that abortion is legal in Britain.
The absurdity of the situation was spelled out by a lawyer for an Irish women's clinic in the March 30 US Nation. He pointed out that under a 1988 gag rule, it may actually be illegal to discuss the case of the 14-year-old rape victim who made it to Britain for an abortion only through international pressure. Since 1988, he pointed out, women's clinic workers and students have been punished for "telling women what the 14 year old's case has now effectively told the world".
Such traditional taboos, while still oppressive, are beginning to look increasingly absurd. The establishment's problems are being heightened by women like singer Sinaed O'Connor, who, by casually revealing that she has "sinned" (by going to Britain for an abortion) and doesn't feel guilty, could be inciting thousands of Irish women to a criminal act: talking publicly about their experiences.
By Tracy Sorensen