Evening star., 1953-11-29
Irish Writers Alarmed by Having
Of Fires Population in Century
The Vanishing Irish
Edited by John A. O'Brien. (McGrap-HiH; 81
Reviewed by Mov McGroy
Reviewed BY Moy McGrory

The kind of thing that
needed to be and has been
said in THE Vanishing Irish"
always comes best from men,
bers Of the family. The con-
tributorS to this searching,
sometimes singing, analysis of
why the Irish do not marry
and will not stay at home are
all Irish, either by birth or
descent. All but one are
Catholic, and three are priests.
So. in spite Of the editors
admission that in certain quar-
ters ANY suggestion that ev-
erything isn't simply wonderful
with Erin is regarded as
hostility bordering on treason
sacrilege." attention should
and sacrilege," attention should
be paid.
The astonishing fact is that,
despite Catholic Ireland's out
lawing of birth control, abor-
tion and divorce, her popula-
ton has been halved in the
last century. She has the low
est marriage rate in the world.
Marriages are too few and too
late. If these trends, aggra-
waited by an annual average
emigration rate of about
$4,000, continue, the Irish may
disappear from the face of
the earth.
The Is contributors, famous
rather as writer's than scien-
lists. draw on their own ex-
perience for the reasons for
this flight and decay. They
disagree on minor points, such
as official Ireland's awareness
of the problem, but they all
agree that the Irishman is not
the marrying kind, not even
when he goes abroad.
Marriage Discouraged?
Some say economic reasons
are primary; but others point
out that economics have not
deferred other Europeans from
the fatal step. Some think
that racial despair"-the
deep unconscious memory of
the terrible days of the fam
inc when people died by the
roadside green about the
mouth from eating grass-is
a factor. But Father Ed
mund j. Murray says that
"95 per cent of Ireland's eligi-
BILE women would marry to-
morrow were the eligible men
of the nation to transfer their
affections from horses and
dogs and football matches and
pubs to the nobler activities
OF courtship and marriage"
Ireland is an agricultural
country which cannot keep its
young folk on the land because
of the drabneSs of the life.
They flee not only to America
and England but to the bright
lights Of Dublin. Father j.
M. Hayes. founder of People Of
the Land, has introduced a
wonderful program of land i'm
provement and recreation to
halt flight, but he points out
that centuries of English op-
preston left the Irish strongly
lacking in q sense of duty to
the country.
But at the heart of the mat
ter is the Irish attitude to-
wards sex. The Irish priest and
the Irish mother. according to
these writer's, have between
them strangled the mating i'm
pulse in the Irishman. Too
many priests thunder against
the dangers of company
keeping" while ignoring the
vocation of marriage. In their
diligence to recruit young men
to their orders, they have
given the impression that mar
riage is somehow a bit shame
full and at any rate q low
estate" JanSenism, that is,
which, according to Father
O'Brien, looks upon marriage
and sex as rather regrettable
necessities in the propagation
Of the race" AS for the Irish
matriarch, sitting in the Chin
ney corner when her middle
aged son finally brings his
aging bride home, she is, in the
words of Paul Vincent Carroll,
about the most jealous and