Preliminary findings in a new study of attitudes among southern Protestants disclose that the effects of the Catholic Church's Ne Temere decree on mixed marriages are "most acutely felt and obsessively returned to" by members of that minority spoken to during research.

Enunciated in 1907, Ne Temere requires that all children of a mixed marriage be brought up as Catholics. Before 1907 the tradition was that the boys in such a marriage would be brought up in the father's faith and the girls in that of their mother.

Presenting the preliminary findings in a draft entitled A Silent Minority? Protestants as Estab- lished and Outsiders in the Repub- lic, Dr Stephen Mennell, Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin, whose Department undertook the study, said that "every [Protestant] group discussed this [Ne Temere], often with some bitterness. Stories were told of the ruthlessness of priests in enforcing the rule.

"The fear of losing their children and grandchildren to the Catholic Church as a result of a `mixed' marriage often led parents to encourage their children to be distant from Catholic children, especialy during adolescence. In the rural areas, Protestant `hops' [dances] played a major part in attempting to segregate youngsters, with limited success, it would appear."

`Protestant "hops" played a major part in attempting to segregate youngsters'

The consequence of Ne Temere was isolation, leading to Protestants being "ghettoised", particularly in rural areas. This "process of exclusion" often meant that Protestant parents who sent their children away to Protestant boarding school felt a sense of uninvolvement in the local community, with the result often that Protestants lived in "a bubble" within the wider society, the study has found.

Stories were told to the team of researchers of Protestant children being excluded from a play area run by Catholic nuns, and being kept indoors during Corpus Christi processions. Younger Protestants said they did not reveal their identity to new friends until it was "necessary and/or safe to do so."

Some spoke of the hurt at Catholic friends feeling obliged to stand in the porch of a Protestant church at weddings and funerals.

"Stories were also told about interventions by the Legion of Mary. How they surrounded a street gospel preacher to cut him off from his audience in one case, and how in another the Legion sent Catholic girls to meet Protestant boys coming out of a [Protestant] Boys' Brigade meeting."

Some also complained about Catholic ignorance of Protestant beliefs, but a particular cause of "most grievous hurt" was the recurrent feeling that fellow citizens in the Republic believed "that one was not entirely Irish if one were not Catholic." This attitude was compounded by such widely held misunderstandings as the belief that Queen Elizabeth is head of the Church of Ireland, which she is not.

Other problems arise from such perceptions among the majority as that "Irish traditional music appears to be associated with Gaelic Catholicism" and that Protestants still have "a lingering sentimental attachment to Britain and things British" despite "a gradual evolution in the [Southern] Protestant community from unionism to nationalism."

However, Protestant participants in the study "quite often understood why they should be misunderstood and even disliked by the Catholic majority." Participants remarked again and again that "the severity and enmity of the Catholic Church of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s was `understandable', given the scorn with which Catholicism had been treated in Ireland by Protestants in previous centuries, mentioning in particular the sustained attempts to convert (or coerce) Catholics to Protestantism."

The central problem of Protestant identity in the Republic was found to be "an ambivalence between wanting to be different and wanting to be the same." Despite the above problems and being such a small minority (less than 3 per cent), there was also a sense of things being better now and a "gratitude for inclusion" among Southern Protestants.

Frequent reference was made to good relations with Catholic neighbours, and the State's anxiety to treat Protestants with fairness and respect, as well as Protestant equality before the law.

It was pointed out, for instance, that there was nothing in Irish law "so baldly discriminatory" as the inclusion of Anglican but not Catholic bishops in the House of Lords. Frequent reference was also made to the fact that the Republic had had two Anglican Presidents and numerous High Court and Supreme Court judges, while "particular and repeated pride was expressed in Jack Boothman's becoming the first Protestant president of the GAA."

The study also found "lingering traces of a sense of superiority" among Protestants interviewed. Examples included "Protestant pride in `being able to think for ourselves', laughing at Catholics going off to Confession (after entering a Protestant church) and some fairly discreet derision at magical elements in Catholicism, such as statues of Our Lady or making the sign of the Cross."

There were also indications of "a well-developed habitual selfrestraint being used as a mark of superiority."

But there were also signs of a negative self-image. Some referred to themselves as wishy-washy Protestants and remarked that, whereas Protestants were once looked up to, this was no longer the case. The number of Protestant farmers found to be resorting to angel dust was cited as an example of this.

Where the North was concerned considerable feelings of anxiety were found among the Southern Protestants. They saw their Northern co-religionists as intolerant and bigoted and generally disapproved of their "ritual marching in an offensive way, and of their shunning of all things Catholic".

Some Southern Presbyterians indicated they would be much happier if affiliated to the Church of Scotland rather than forming a single province with Northern Presbyterians.

It also became clear that the Church of Ireland almost split along North-South lines following the stand-off at Drumcree in 1996. Examples of how the Northern troubles had impinged on the life of Southern Protestants included stories of Protestant businesses in various parts of the Republic being daubed with "Brits Out" slogans, even though the families in question have been Irish for generations.

More humorously, one Protestant man recalled how, when he was the only one of his religion in a local FCA unit, a Catholic colleague assured him that he should not worry because "if the troubles come down here, you lot will all be packed off to Dingle."

The study of Southern Protestants, entitled Threatened Bonds: A Study in the Sociology of Emo- tions and the Dynamics of Group Identities, was undertaken by the Sociology Department of UCD in 1996.

Headed by Prof Mennell, the four other members of the research teams are Paul Stokes, a lecturer in sociology at UCD; Aoife Rickard, a research student in the Sociology Department, UCD; Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, a group analyst; and Mitchell Elliott, president of the Irish Psycho-Analytical Association.