Restoration III: The Church and the Role of Religion in an Irish Monarchy

If there is one aspect of a potential Irish restoration I constantly harp on about as being vital, it is the role of a religious revival in Irish society. And one of the key reasons i've been putting this is off is how incredibly difficult it will be to approach this without coming across as akin to one of those anemic liberals or even some of the more schismatic Catholic elements who say the Church should do this sort or that sort to suit my own interests and sensibilities. That and a fear that my own shambles of a catechizes will discredit whatever I do say.

On top of this is the concern that detractors will point to the heights of Catholicism in Ireland's past and the government cover-ups and the wonton sexual abuses and psychological damage to Irish folk back then crippled us as a society and damaged us to the point of being fascistic automotons. After all, all those famous books written about Irish life back then from liberal leaning authors were completely accurate despite the fact that most of them were absolute fiction bar a few memoirs?

Oh wait terribly sorry, it turns out most of those works have been deeply challenged as inaccurate many times over and are inherently biased. Moving right along then.

It is impossible for me to say exactly why the Catholic Church specifically is necessary for the task of restoration until the role of religion is clarified. In the past Ireland was, ok admittedly, still is a religious country even though it is rapidly becoming secularized. Religiosity defines the Irish character, the Irish Character is, in turn, mocked for its religiosity... and drunkenness, and wife beating, and our odd way of thinking and turn of speech. Whoever said the Irish stopped being acceptable targets in media for comedy? A fool most likely.

Religious revival is neccessary in turning over the dominant Anglo-Americanised culture that has stamped itself across the english speaking world. It is neccessary because with religiosity comes morals and character, inconvenience for politicians and societal rules that are contrary to what has become the norm. The average Irishman and Irishwoman, when they hold deep moral convictions, are going to feel very alien in the dominant, and foreign, culture that surrounds them. And such unifying moral convictions can only come from an organised Religion to inform, preach and uphold them. Should a Religious revival occur across the country, and God willing it does, the dominant anglo-americanised culture will no longer satisfy the Irishman. The west britons calling for a downgrading of the status of Gaelige in Irish institutions and education will sound more and more like the bleating goats they are, an identity crisis will have emerged. We are no longer in the De Valera era and aggressive nationalism is no longer widespread in Ireland but passive nationalistic pride still remains. Well thats what liberals call it, I'd call it cultural pride. As you know, having celtic styled artwork decorating Churches is so 20th century...

The end goal of such a religious revival is of course, if I am forgiven, for thinking of it in politically manipulative terms, is to create real politics, (not to be confused with Real Politik), and by that I mean politicians with backbone, audacity and character. I was extremely mad at Fine Gael handing over the public sector to their Irish labour bedfellows after the general election because it is the perfect example of shameless politics that boils my blood so. If ever I needed reaffirmation of being a Monarchist I need only look south of the Border... or North to Storment. What this achieves is genuine intellectual political conflict to shake the passive Irish mind from its stupor and it is then monarchism can really be spread as an actual alternative amid such a furious storm of political thought brought on by the spread of solid moral values.

The Catholic Church is the perfect institution to achieve this end precisely because it is not an Irish specific institution. A revival of the Catholic Church, (once His Holiness is done with his Reform of the Reform and a couple hundred dozen Inquisitions are completed), will be explosive in Ireland, for one thing most Catholics in Ireland are Lukewarm, on the fence as it were between being a genuinely religious nation or something akin to the average religiosity of Scandinavia. It also helps the Catholic Church still enjoys a predominant position and favoritism of the Irish Government, even if it is unstated. It also helps that Roman Catholicism has a long history of complementing native cultures once conversion has been achieved, (Ireland entered a golden age of intellectual advancement after it converted) although this is not universally true for the cultural identities of some nations who had violent conversions (Lithuania), so the Catholic Church as a worldwide institution not subject to Irish petty politics and governmental chest pounding can wreck merry havoc on the current poisonous cultural attitude in Ireland and set the stage for real challenge and change in Irish politics.

Again, as stated before, for the case of Irish Monarchism, the Catholic Church's position is an immense gamble precisely because it cannot be controlled. If she does not clean house to wipe away the filth of modernist heresies and liberal poisoning of the clerical mind in this country, all it would take would be for a few liberal bishops to condemn the Irish Monarchist movement as 'un-Catholic' to set back the Restoration for 5 decades if we are fortunate. (Then again mind you, there are plenty of faithful clergy in the Catholic Church who are committed republicans even if they are not overtly political, thus increasing the risk of the gamble) The Church need not actively support the movement, all monarchists need for the Church to do is not to oppose us, that leaves one less moral backing for our republican opponents. (and yes as a Roman Catholic I am inherently biased in favor of the Church, but what I say still remains true)

Now with that said and a best case scenario is achieved and a Native Irish Monarchy is restored, it is in my opinion that religion should remain an overt an active part of the Irish lifestyle. Naturally in such a best case scenario the Church itself would handle these matters, so that leaves the public sphere to deal with.

It is the opinion of this monarchist that the Irish Monarchy would recognize religion's role in the public sphere, this will of course mean that non Catholic religions would also be allowed to be active in the public sphere (more on this in subsequent posts on divine supremacy and the toleration of heretics). The Irish Monarchy would by necessity, much like the republican government beforehand, recognize the special role of the Catholic Church as the religion of the overwhelming majority and take account of that. Even going so far as to make it the state religion precisely to emphasis religion's role in monarchy and in the nation as a whole (more on this in the coronation post), the alliance of alter and throne is as old as monarchy itself and even religion, and I see no reason why the Irish Monarchy should be different in this regard. In fact with the added effect of having a strong monarchy with a leashed Dail giving Ireland the benefit of notoriety and prestige int he great family of nations, the establishment of a State religion in today's world would be a flippant and welcome middle finger to the current republican world view and a direct challenge to the republican ideal.

Again, there is no set guarantee that the revival of religion will make Irish minds more susceptible to our many mysterious monarchical machinations, but at the very least it will provide a forum to dispel myths of monarchy being a decidedly 'protestant thing' precisely because any monarchist movement in Ireland as a whole would be overwhelmingly Catholic to begin with.

I) Rex Hibernie. Imperator Scotturum.
II) Clans and the Role of the Church
III) -
- Supplementary post: Divine Supremecy and Tolerance: The Neccessity of State Religion and toleration of Heretics
IV) The Legislative Process in an Irish Monarchy
- Supplementary Post: Monarchist Economics and Dynamic Politics
- The Role of Chieftans and other Lords
V) The High Coronation, the true All Ireland Final
- The Role of the Council of Chieftans, Dynastic succession issues and legitimacy
- The Role of the Church
- The Role of the Monarch and the Royal Family
- Lords, Statesman and Farmers
- Final comments on the Coronation
VI) And all the world is a stage... Foreign Relations and the Role of a Monarchical Ireland in Europe and Elsewhere.

Restoration II: Clans and the Role of the Church

If a fully Irish Monarchy in today's world is to make any kind of sense, we need a ressurrection of the traditional clan mentality of the Goidelic celts. Something which still exists to an extent in both Ireland and Scotland where family ties still remain incredibly strong in comparison to the rest of western civilization. Family means alot, who you are, who's related to you by blood or marriage, who your parents were still matter a great deal and this has obvious pros and cons. Obviously this is nowhere near as strong as it used to be, the McLoughlin clan say, feels nothing for an opposing sept of the same McLoughlin clan on the other side of the island, despite both septs of the family have common shared ancestry. In fact it is no controversial thing to say that these septs dont have a chieftain, or if there is one they don't know who he is, (the Irish Clan chieftains is a male only held title while in Scotland females may hold the title, although this is rare). And here is where the role of clan chieftans of even the none royal clans can play a vital role in an Irish Monarchy in the form of a native aristocracy that will make sense to the Irish psyche, thus necessitating a renewal of the clan mentality.

The clan chieftain's role is simple, he is the head of the family. The buck of family affairs stops at him. He is by virtue the clan's 'favoured uncle'. In the old ages this would mean he was the military and political chief of his clan and the go-to person if someone wished to petition their regional king. In the modern a

ge he would provide and equally important role, that of unity and family identity, bearing importance on familial relations and establishing a deep seated sense of cultural pride which has obvious benefits. He will be often at times the only link one disparate sept of a clan shares with the larger sept, creating a sense of security. I do not intend to argue the chieftains control political power, because that would be ridiculous and unneccessary as such chieftains would have unstated influence anyway due to their position, besides, if clans had chieftain appointed representatives to their local district councils, suddenly people would have their local governments filled with people who give a damn about the condition of their roads and schools.

Clan relations would of course, cause Irish society to become more complicated and sophisticated as a result, as everyone has not only loyalty but Blood loyalty to the aristocratic ruling class, creating an inherent sense of worth and expectation of higher standards of even the lowest class of Irishman. It also dissuades revolutionary ideas, as no one really wants to kill their favourite Uncle. Well ok no one who is sane anyway. The Chieftains would of course have a keener sense of duty to their clansmen as a result.

Now such a system is not perfect but its an example of how the clan system can justify and create an intelligible aristocracy to a race of people who've only ever in recent memory been familiar with the English model, which has obvious drawbacks on the people's view of legitimacy of the monarchy.

I will touch upon the role of the Royal clans later on in this exercise, and how they relate to the local clans and the High King. Right now I wish to talk about legitimacy and the key pillar of supporting such a claim.

It is no historical secret that the celts, especially in Ireland have always been a fervently religious people. This is true both in Pagan times as it is

now in Christian Ireland. Even in today's world where the Religious establishment has been rocked by abuse cases, poor catechises of its members, corruption of its highest officials, the fact remains that Ireland is still a religious country. In the face of falling mass attendence, priesthood recruitments et al, the idea of a secular country is still an Idea most Irishman either passively dismiss with half hearted words like ''well its a nice idea'' or flat out refuse to acknowledge it as a legitimate concept. During the Christmas season this is especially evident that even with the typical modern decorations you will usually find Christian symbolism in the forms of traditional image of Christmas, especially nativity scenes, strewn absolutely everywhere. This is a country that tacitly allows preachers to give sermons and speeches on the steps of its government buildings and courthouses whether its officially against the law or not, whose government invested radio station talk hosts openly discuss theology on national radio with guests and each other, whose constitution STILL favours a quasi state religion even given all the recent troubles and promises of republicanism and constitutional betrayals said government has performed only recently. Make no mistake, the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland is still amazingly strong amongst its lapsed Catholic population for all the liberal pollution both have undergone. If there's anything the Irish are guilty of giving lip service to, its the ideas of secularism and egalitarianism.

With that said the Church is extremely important yet in the face of an Irish Restoration, it is also the single most unpredictable factor.

What I mean is this, the chance of the restoration of the High Kingdom of Ireland rests solely on a more socially and religiously conservative Ireland and the only really reliable way to guarantee that is for the Church to shake itself out of this 40 year heretical liberal reverie its been stuck in. I made a previous post on my support for the Irish Inquisition and further Inquisitions into the lives of religious and clergy, both high and low elsewhere in the world, because I fundamentally believe such investigations are needed for the Church to clean up its act, regain its moral authority in the eyes of the people, and start preaching good sense to the masses. For if it doesnt and the restoration begins, all it will take is a few liberal bishops and priests to stand against it and preach against it to awaken the dormant nationalism in the Irish working classes (which we saw in Dublin a few years back) in the favour of republicanism and the counter revolutionary movement in Ireland will be set back another century.

It all really boils down to how well the Papacy, the Curia and the magisterium clean house within the Church, something which neither the Irish people nor its government can ever have control of, (nor should they), making the Church's role ultimately necessary in legitimising an Irish monarchy and, unfortunately, the most unpredictable, as a secular monarchy is both nonsensical and unwanted in the Irish case to begin with.

Other posts in the Restoration Series

I) Rex Hibernie. Imperator Scotturum.
II) -
III) The Church and the Role of Religion in an Irish Monarchy
- Supplementary post: Divine Supremecy and Tolerance: The Neccessity of State Religion and toleration of Heretics
IV) The Legislative Process in an Irish Monarchy
- Supplementary Post: Monarchist Economics and Dynamic Politics
- The Role of Chieftans and other Lords
V) The High Coronation, the true All Ireland Final
- The Role of the Council of Chieftans, Dynastic succession issues and legitimacy
- The Role of the Church
- The Role of the Monarch and the Royal Family
- Lords, Statesman and Farmers
- Final comments on the Coronation
VI) And all the world is a stage... Foreign Relations and the Role of a Monarchical Ireland in Europe and Elsewhere.