ABSTRACT
In 1922, following a war of independence and a civil war, the Irish Free State was in the first flush of independence. Political and ecclesiastical leaders now had the opportunity to mould a new state to reflect the ideals of what they deemed to be Catholic and Gaelic Ireland, to cast off the ‘alien standards of public morality’ imposed on them under British rule (see Devane 1924). In reality, this translated to creating a state which conferred on them a post-colonial sense of dignity and which reflected middle-class values of stability and respectability. But it was all done under the guise of creating Catholic, Gaelic Ireland.
