The Christian Grasp on Irish Bodily Autonomy
Written by Eva O’Beirne
Artwork by Aiesha Wong
When it comes to sex education, I have always taken any advice given to me with a pinch of salt. A built-in scepticism, or perhaps even a hereditary form of Catholic guilt, has continuously plagued me. Similar to anyone who passed through the Irish education system, I was subjected to daily prayers as well as substandard information about sex. External counsellors would frequently visit both my religion and health classes, as if the two were somehow connected. It wasn’t until recently that I realised how much I had internalised their teachings about my body, about marriage and relationships, and about sex. And I’m hardly the only one. In 2014, a Christian education group in Ireland was revealed to be taping teenagers together by the wrist during their talks on sex and relationships. One child would be taped to another, and then taped several other students with the same piece of tape. The tape would lose its ability to stick, illustrating the “damage” from engaging in sex. The group, Pure in Heart, “an international Catholic Movement of young adults who through prayer and friendship strive to learn, live and share the truth” was also accused of equating watching porn to being a serial killer during a sex education presentation.
But this isn’t an isolated incident. Ireland’s sex education scheme for schools was only introduced in the mid-1990s, with official documentation saying: “Sex is a gift, a most sacred act, and full sexual intimacy belongs in a totally adult relationship where there is equal trust, respect, acceptance, and understanding for both partners – as in marriage.” This quote becomes even more harrowing when you realise that the last Mother and Baby Home in Ireland closed in 1998. Teachers are not obliged to follow a certain Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) – instead, the subjects can simply be taught “within the ethos of the school”.
Allowing schools to follow an ascribed ethos rather than a curriculum allowed for an educational vacuum that Catholic “educational” groups gladly filled. Up to 50% of sex education in Ireland is outsourced and there are no minimum qualifications to teach the topic to incredibly impressionable children. Pure in Heart said one of its new projects last year was developing a presentation suitable for primary school pupils, aimed at fifth and sixth class. How can this be allowed to happen? Pure in Heart aren’t the only Catholic educational group visiting Irish schools. There’s also Youth Defence, which is alleged to have Neo-Nazi and far-right links. As well as Accord, which has been protested against in multiple schools. Accord, in particular, does not validate same-sex relationships and openly discriminates against gay people. 
The issue of sex education hits hard for me because I went to an all-girls Catholic secondary school. Religion was core to the school’s identity to the point where LGBTQ+ education didn’t exist, let alone opinions on the LGBTQ+ community. Discussions on the marriage referendum were effectively banned — naturally, so was the discussion around Repeal the 8th. If you were LGBTQ+, it was recommended you keep your head down until you left secondary school. Sexualities other than heterosexuality were acknowledged but never explained. In most Irish schools, there is still a reluctance to understand anything that isn’t cisgender or heterosexual.
The Department of Education recently announced an overhaul of Junior Cycle SPHE education to include discussion on pornography and consent, amongst other topics. This may seem like a beacon of hope against a grim reality, but there is no indication that schools will have to follow this curriculum, and no indication that outsourced instructors or workshops will have to have a minimum qualification to interact with children who could be easily buried under Catholic guilt and shame.
There’s also the question of Senior Cycle and Primary school education. When will those students receive the education they need, free of shame and focused on removing any body negativity and stereotypes? Or will they be forced to endure sellotape as a form of sex education? What is truly alarming in all of this, is the presence of “dark money” being used to fund these groups that advocate for Catholic education. 81.3 million dollars worth of funding flowed from U.S. donors to help fund activism against abortion and other conservative causes in Europe between 2009 and 2018, according to a report compiled by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF).
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of those dollars were used to influence the Irish population during the Referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment. According to Joseph Schieldler of the Pro-Life Action League, American abortion opponents were particularly attracted to Youth Defence as "abortion is about conversion and it's very hard to convert people in masses, and that is why people like Youth Defence go out into the street."
Apart from teaching children about their bodies in a good ol’ God honouring, Catholic way, Youth Defence have made headlines in Ireland for its aggressive campaigning tactics which included parting a billboard truck outside the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 2013 with the anti-abortion slogan of “The abortion bill won't make women safer, it will just kill babies”. 70% of Youth Defence's Twitter followers come from the U.S. and until recently their donation form was in dollars instead of euros. Youth Defence’s affiliated organisation The Life Institute has also been investigated by the state ethics watchdog for potential breach of lobbying regulations. But it's even bigger than this.
Madrid-based campaign group CitizenGo, which is supported by American and Russian ultra-conservatives, joined the Save the 8th campaign and ran a large online petition to retain the Eighth Amendment in 2018. CitizenGo amassed 55,561 signatures in an attempt to influence Irish voters’ decisions in the referendum. They also ran a social media campaign calling for a No vote. And they’re still here, creating more petitions regarding Catholic causes. Another US-based Catholic organisation with offices in Ireland is Human Life International (HLI). Similarly to CitizenGo, it was involved in the ‘Save the 8th’ campaign in 2018. Its Irish office has an address in Knock, Co. Mayo, and is registered with the charity regulator. A previous investigation by The Guardian newspaper showed that HLI “has for years directed a steady flow of dollars to Sí a la Vida, the Salvadoran organisation responsible for the country’s abortion ban”.
During the 2018 Referendum, news agency Storyful found that only a third of advertisements urging a No vote came from Facebook pages managed solely in Ireland. Foreign organisations on the list of advertisers were primarily from the US and Canada. One of the American groups is called Expectant Mother Care (EMC) FrontLine Pregnancy Centers - the group was previously fined $1,500 as a result of misleading women about healthcare options. Virginia-based Radiance Foundation was also on the list, as well as Live Action, best known for its undercover videos at Planned Parenthood clinics. 
As international religious groups lose their hold on the Irish education system, they have had to evolve. Walking through Dublin city centre recently, you may have seen signs for the “Rally for Life” - an event growing in size every year despite an increase of support for abortion in Ireland. You can spot billboards filled with misinformation about abortion begining to pop up again throughout the city. Fake websites and crisis clinics are becoming common scams. There is no doubt that Irish, Catholic-oriented “advocacy” groups have broken Irish law when it comes to foreign donations and funding. Aontú’s links to the infamous Iona Institute, are alarming to say the least.
I don’t expect the problem of the Catholic grasp on Irish sex education and bodily autonomy to go away soon. Northern Ireland has become a battleground of anti-abortion rights activists looking to take advantage of an unorganised system. The health service in the Republic has issued multiple warnings about rogue crisis pregnancy centres while religious groups seek new ways to harass people seeking healthcare after the introduction of Safe Access Zones. The UK government may easily remove the right to abortions as the Equality Act 2013 is slowly dismantled.
The Roe v. Wade ruling has emboldened Pro-Life, conservative groups like never before. And I wonder what the fallout in our own Government will look like. We shouldn’t forget that Norma Foley, Minister for Education didn’t support gay marriage or Repeal. Even looking at the sensationalist headlines about the new SPHE cirriculum, I can’t help but wonder if we can be saved from taboos of the past. National papers and magazines appeared to be clutching their pearls at the mere mention of porn – as if 50% of both Irish men and women haven’t said they used porn to learn about sex.
I don’t think Irish people realise how damaging our attitudes towards sex are to our lives. I prided myself on my interest in sexual health as a teenager yet looking back I realise now I knew nothing– just a collection of Cosmopolitan tips and phrases from Sex and the City. But it was better than nothing. From the age of sixteen I had 200 euro hidden in a jar on my bookshelf - just in case. I didn’t know where I would go, who I would tell if I needed an abortion but I felt I had to do it.
Ireland seemed to be taking large leaps forward with regard to dismantling our sexual trauma, but I won’t believe we have progress until we can truly separate religion from schools and healthcare. Can we ever escape the grasp of far-right, Christian groups? Or will the Government continue to honour the “special relationship” it used to have with the Catholic Church by putting our health, our education and maybe even our democracy in danger? 