An Irish Independence Vacation
Fourth of July, and this summer’s family trip took us to the Cliffs of Moher on Ireland’s west coast to learn how another republic came to be.
The kids stood at the Atlantic edge under the tricolor and we talked about how Ireland won itself. The 1916 Easter Rising, then a war, then a free state, then a republic. That part they expected. Flags, dates, a fight against an empire. It rhymes with the story they already know from home.
The part that made me cry was deeper.
For most of its first seventy years, the Republic of Ireland was one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. The Church’s authority was written into the constitution and into daily life. Then, by popular vote, the country chose to loosen that grip.
- It legalized divorce in 1995 by the narrowest margin.
- It became the first country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2015.
- It repealed its constitutional ban on abortion in 2018, two thirds in favor.
None of that came down from a court or a founder. People argued it out and voted.
That is the lesson I wanted the kids to carry home on the Fourth. Independence is not a date you inherit. A republic is something its people keep deciding to become.