When they came to Ireland first, they were being arrested for dancing in the street. It will be the same with us. The new pariah, as far as Garde is concerned, is the International Churches of Christ. Also known as the Boston Movement, the group is under intense British media scrutiny because it specialises in recruiting rural students, who must pay one-tenth of their income into church coffers and are sent out to win a target number of converts. The group has more than 100 members in Ireland, including 15 in Belfast.
Members live in the community, and hold down regular jobs.
We do ask them to pay one-tenth of their salaries as a contribution. Lee agrees that the church does not allow its followers to date or marry anyone outside the group. Frances Egan, from Galway, was initially relaxed when her daughter, Katherine, joined the International Churches of Christ in December 1996, aged 19. By the following summer she was worried. When her daughter came home, church members kept ringing her.