The reach and power of the Catholic Church has waned
considerably in recent years in Ireland. But there are troubling signs
that its undue influence over the country is returning, writes Keith
Porteous Wood.
It is difficult to envisage now,
but when the UK was formed at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
Dublin was regarded as the "Second City of the British Empire".
Ireland's role in British political life was no less than that of
England, Scotland and Wales from then until the progressive separations
from Britain that started during the First World War.