Sexual Transgression and Scapegoats: A Case Study from Modern Ireland

Abstract

The Republic of Ireland has become known as the Celtic Tiger. For the last five years of the 20th century it has had the fastest growing economy in Europe. There have also been dramatic changes in Irish culture: the monopoly which the Catholic Church held over Irish morality has been broken; there is increased tolerance and acceptance of alternative sexuality. But it was not long ago that things were very different.This article tells the story of what happened to Joanne Hayes, an `unmarried mother', who in 1984 was at the centre of what came to be known as the Case of the Kerry Babies. The story is placed within the context of the social and cultural changes that took place in Ireland during the last half of the 20th century, but to explain what happened the article relies on Foucault's theory of disciplinary power, Girard's concept of the scapegoat and Said's notion of how `others' come to be constituted as exotic.