The Upside of Child Abuse

If you are the BBC, that is. Woman's Hour had a field day today.

No attention whatever was paid to the fact that inspection was more rigorous in Northern Ireland, where the Church had not become a substitute monarchy, because there was still the real one. Or to the fact that practically everyone in the Irish Republic was educated by the Catholic Church, and most of them have turned out all right. Or to the fact that all these institutions, though managed by the Church, were of the State. Or to the fact that recent reports have involved always the relatively more secular (and relatively more Protestant) Dublin area, rather than the heartlands of the rural Catholic Ireland of old. Or to any of a whole host of other facts and factors.

Instead, a way was finally found to square one of the Beeb's most vexing circles. Ignoring the very close relationship, both historical and contemporary, between Irish Republicanism and ferocious anticlericalism, the BBC managed to come up with its own way of rationalising, at last, its own longstanding and visceral commitment to both. There has been child abuse "by the Catholic Church" in the Republic, so Northern Ireland must (entirely against the never-mentioned wishes of people in the Republic) be incorporated into that state. Yes, Auntie. That's right...