ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the ideology of the state and the notion of a sacrosanct national identity contributed to a biopolitical structure that fostered many unethical practices within religious institutions. It also shows how theatrical, filmic, and other media representations have exposed the nature of religious institutions, mobilized public opinion, and highlighted policies that dehumanize women. The religious orders made money by operating laundry services, offering the babies for adoption, and receiving a stipend from the government for each woman and child that they housed. The power of the Church meant that it structured not just the religious life of the Irish people, but their social, political and economic life as well. According to Tom Inglis, 'Irish rural society in the early nineteenth century placed little emphasis on physical modesty or on verbal reticence. There was an unambiguous sexual symbolism in wake games and May Day festivals'.
