ABSTRACT
This chapter discovers the co-development of state and church public relations in Ireland from the gaining of independence from Britain in 1922. It provides historical context from preceding centuries, realizing that such an approach can be prone to several pitfalls. The pioneers of Irish public relations were the Christian monks, led by saint Columbanus, who sailed from Ireland at the end of the sixth century. They bridged the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of medieval Europe, and can be described as public relations pioneers as developed in the above reference to St. Paul. Ireland was the only part of the Celtic world not occupied by Roman armies; nor did it suffer from the Eastern European invasions of the Dark Ages. Child sex abuse affected the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. Pedophilia has always been a crime under church canon law, but the manner in which it was dealt with has been highlighted only recently.
