Enough Religion to Make Us Hate
Victor Griffin, born in county Wicklow, talks of two major periods in his ministry in the Church of Ireland: a twenty-two-year stint in the city of Derry and another twenty-two-year period as Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He has therefore had extensive experience of the joys and sorrows, the positives and the negatives of life in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. He is very well placed to consider, as he does in this book, a range of issues of concern o Christians all over Ireland: our legacy of intolerance and sectarianism, church-state relations and the problems they have caused for both church and state, Protestants in the Irish Free State, the harmful effects of Partition, the Drumcree debacle and the failure of Christian leadership, and many other matters viewed from the point of view of one who is convinced of the need for a pluralist society both north and south. He considers the ups and downs of the ecumenical movement, our notions of God and, finally, the abortion referendum of 1983, in which he took a high-profile part, and what the future may hold in the light of the recent referendum.