Following independence from the UK in 1922, the Irish state embarked on a nation-building project based primarily on the precepts of the Roman Catholic majority. As 92 percent of the population ...identified as Catholic in the 1926 census, the church was the undisputed arbiter of morality in every aspect of Irish life. As noted by Tom Inglis, the power of the church in Ireland lay not just in its numerical supremacy but also in the way that religion permeated every aspect of Irish life, including politics, health, education, and family life. Its annual message to the faithful--the Lenten pastorals--warned of the dangers lurking in foreign dances and music, alien dress codes, alcohol consumption, dance halls, and British Sunday newspapers. What followed was a great deal of legislation designed to address the Catholic hierarchy's concerns and an acknowledgment from the political class that independence constituted a political rather than a social revolution: in 1923 the minister for justice, Kevin O'Higgins, described the new Irish political establishment as "probably the most conservative-minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful revolution." All political parties were careful to publicly demonstrate that their political programs did not contradict the teachings of the church.
