The reason was, the high Irish birthrate. If you have 10 kids, it doesn't bother you in the least to see 1 or 2 of them enter a celibate religious order. If you have only 1 or 2 kids, that's a tragedy: no grandchildren!
“The reason was, the high Irish birthrate. If you have 10 kids, it doesn’t bother you in the least to see 1 or 2 of them enter a celibate religious order. If you have only 1 or 2 kids, that’s a tragedy: no grandchildren!”
I don’t know what country you have lived in but in America the birthrate only dropped in the last thirty years when abortions were made legal. My father’s family had 11 children and there were six in my family...all Americans, thank you.