Religious organisations running probation services as late as the 70s!

Solair

I was just reading through the Magdalene Laundries Report and was really horrified to read this paragraph in the executive summary:

It just highlights why Ireland desperately needs a proper debate (and probably a referendum) on secularism.

The Committee found that for some of the relevant periods, a number of voluntary organisations and their officers had an important role in certain aspects of the administration of the criminal justice system. These included
organisations such as the Legion of Mary whose members served as voluntary Probation Officers until the expansion of the professional Probation Service in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The role of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in the years prior to the development of State social services, is also detailed in the Report.

It's really terrifying to think that religious organisations were directly embedded in the administration of justice as recently as the 1970s.

There are countless other examples of this kind of thing scattered throughout our system of Governance.

Not to mention that every Oireachtas meeting still starts with:

Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance; that every word and work of ours may always begin from Thee, and by Thee be happily ended; through Christ our Lord. Amen

http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/a-misc/prayer.htm

....

Stuff like this really makes me want to emigrate to somewhere sensible.