Tilson case decision by the Supreme Court in 1950 relating to care of three children in a mixed-religion marriage was widely misinterpreted by the public as an enforcement of the Catholic Church’s Ne Temere decreeThe three Tilson children leaving the Birds' Nest, accompanied by their mother Mary Tilson and solicitor George McGrath: The High Court ruled the prospective general welfare of the children required they be returned to live with their mother and taught as had been agreed by Mary...
To get the dispensation required under the Roman Catholic Ne Temere papal decree that would permit a Catholic to marry a Protestant, both signed an undertaking their children would be baptised and brought up as Catholic.The union, as the High Court described it, was “not altogether happy”.
Some local Catholic residents, encouraged by their parish priest, boycotted Mr Tilson’s family’s tailoring business in Oldcastle during the court proceedings and for a time afterwards The application raised two core questions – whether the husband was bound by the pre-nup undertaking and whether the common law rule conferring paternal supremacy in matters of upbringing, education and religious instruction conflicted with article 42.1 of the 1937 Constitution, under which the State guarantees to respect the “inalienable” right and duty of parents to provide for the education of their children.
Outraged Protestants, North and South, including Rev WCG Proctor, from Grosvenor Road, Dublin, wrote letters to The Irish Times objecting to the court’s decision The majority stressed that, unlike the High Court, the Supreme Court was not holding that articles 41 and 44 conferred any privileged position before the law on members of the Catholic Church.
In an editorial published shortly after the judgment, The Irish Times referred to the “archaic” character of the paternal supremacy rule and agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision the rule was inconsistent with the Constitution. A letter from PC Byrne, from Naas, said: “Northern Ireland Protestants cannot understand why they alone are always being accused of bigotry in view of the Tilson case. They are equally baffled by the decree that one cannot be a good Catholic by attending Trinity College. They also class as bigotry the ‘foreign’ games and dances regulation by the GAA and the fact that in Éire one often wears a British Legion poppy at grave risk of assault on the streets.
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Source: IrishMirror - 🏆 4. / 98 Read more »