Mary Robinson and The Secularization of The Republic of Ireland in the 1990s

Abstract

This essay analyses Robinson's policies towards women and LGBT rights, contextualizing her political and activist connections with these social movements, and the reasons that explain her success in establishing policies that challenged Irish traditional politics and the powerful presence of the Catholic Church. I will argue that the changes Mary Robinson implemented throughout her career as well as the way in which she transformed the office of the president were fundamental to the removal of the church as a central power structure of Irish politics, rather secularizing the state of the republic to become more inclusive towards the previously disenfranchised populations of women and LGBT individuals.