Speaking as a catholic, as a child, even catholics in England thought the Irish version of catholicism was horrific. When we read about some of the things the bishops ruled on in ireland in the 1950s I can remember my friends and I agreeing that we were so thankful we were living in the UK, even though most of us were of Irish origin.
Many of us came from families where there were many 'mixed' marriages and had been into other churches. At 11, living in a deeply rural village, I developed an interest in historic churches by going in and out our old village church and churchyard and then cycling to other villages to visit their churches as well. It certainly wasn't anything that botherd my parents.
What I do remember, is there was one girl I was friendly with, who was being brought up by grand parents, who told her nothing. It was the home cleaner who explained everything to her when, without any knowledge, her periods started and when she was 14 we discovered that she didn't know the facts of life, three of us took it upon ourselves to sit down and explain them to her. She was quite upset and said that her grandparents would never do anything like that (they had 4 children). In the end she became a nun, which we felt, at the time) was an escape from life.
However, she then trained as a teacher and ended up working in the townships of South Africa, during apartheid, so her life as a nun was not without its challenges, nor did it protect her from the realities of life.
