The Way We Were, Catholic Ireland since 1922 by Mary Kenny: reflections of a mellowed rebel

Mary Kenny reminisces on the paradox of Irish Catholicism in the 20th century, sprinkling her account with very personal biographical anecdotes. Mary, along with Nell McCafferty and Nuala Fennell, were among the 12 founder members of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970. Their manifesto, Chains or Change, raised legitimate issues of justice and equality for women in Ireland. Mary was one of 47 women who travelled on the famous “Contraceptive Train” to Belfast in 1971.

Until then, Ireland and Catholicism had been synonymous. Many citizens found it a coping mechanism to hold strong belief in the institutional church while at the same time exhibiting a tolerance of difference. Mary insightfully describes this as “cognitive dissonance”, a very Irish ability to hold two opposing views simultaneously. For example, Micheál Mac Liammóir, founder of the Gate Theatre and partner of Hilton Edwards, had a Catholic funeral, attended by the President, Patrick Hillery.

The book is divided into two parts: the first, a sweep over significant historical events of the 100 years since the foundation of the State in 1922. She highlights how Catholicism influenced the early leaders including Michael Collins, Kevin O’Higgins and Éamon de Valera. The second part comprises brief biographical portraits of people whose lives reflect and illuminate some of the events, ideas, historic episodes, and transformations that touched Kenny’s own life. Many names will be unknown to younger readers. As befitting the author, they are an eclectic mix, including Gay Byrne, Alice Glenn, Gerry Fitt, Danny La Rue, Peter Sutherland and Ken Whitaker, people whose faith impacted significantly on how they lived, even though, as the author concedes, that was not always in tune with the institutional church.

[ Laying the tracks to liberation: The original contraceptive train ]

Other very honest personal anecdotes colour the narrative, such as the time she spent as a secretary to the author Edna O’Brien with much “partaking of Beaujolais and cake”. She describes her career from student to journalist with honesty and humour, including an admission of being an annoyingly disruptive influence in school and becoming addicted to alcohol in her early twenties.

‘I have not had contact with my siblings for many decades, nor did I attend my parents’ funerals’

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The book does not claim to be an in-depth historical analysis. It is the perspective of a rebellious young woman, someone whose own faith and understanding have undergone change and mellowed with the passage of time.