June 21 1975
It is almost a hundred years since WS Gilbert first delighted audiences with his sparkling satire on the House of Lords in the opera Iolanthe. It is all quotable, but perhaps the quintessential song is that which relates to the role of the House of Peers in British history, with its warning that Britain’s glory will last only as long as “noble statesmen do not itch to interfere in matters which they do not understand”.
How relevant were his observations was underlined during the week in the report of the debate in the House of Lords on the Bill to outlaw discrimination in employment on religious grounds in Northern Ireland. In the face of such ignorance and misunderstanding it is easy enough to accept the contention of some British historians that Britain acquired an empire almost “by accident” and has contrived to lose it in the same way.
Indeed the debate would have been quite funny if it were not that to believing Christians of all denominations there is limitless tragedy in the knowledge that the horrors of the past six years in Northern Ireland have done incalculable damage to Christianity everywhere, including Northern Ireland itself.
The keynote to the debate, as reported, was struck by Baroness Bacon who announced to the House that she felt concern for non-religious people in Northern Ireland, for “strange as it may seem”, she said, “there are people in Northern Ireland with no religious beliefs”.
Why should it seem strange to the House of Lords that there are people in this section of the United Kingdom who have no religious beliefs? England, Scotland and Wales have many Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Mormons, humanists atheists and people who subscribe to no particular belief or disbelief. Why should Northern Ireland not have its comparable quota? The answer is that the religious element in Northern Ireland’s problems has been totally distorted by commentators in the past six years.
It is a simple way out of a perplexing situation which puzzles and, above all, bores Britain to assume that Catholics represent X and Protestants Y in this debate.
“When we see”, went on Baroness Bacon, “what religion has done to Northern Ireland. I am amazed that there are not more people without any religious beliefs”.
What a breath-taking shrugging off of all responsibility for a tangled, ugly, blasphemous and totally discreditable situation is contained in such a bland utterance. How dare any member of the Westminster Government sneer at “what religion has done” to this, or any part, of the island.
Irish News editorial condemning the House of Lords, and other commentators, for its ignorance and simplistic understanding of religion in Northern Ireland.