World Notes IRELAND

In one week Ireland's church and state both received a shock. A woman who has battled Roman Catholic teaching on contraception, divorce and homosexuality was elected President, a largely ceremonial position. And the Vatican appointed Cahal Daly, a fierce critic of the Irish Republican Army, as Primate of All-Ireland. The Belfast-based bishop's elevation pleased politicians and religious leaders in Ulster and London, where there is hope that his outspoken condemnations of violence might help quell sectarian terrorism.

Mary Robinson, the candidate of the minority Labour Party, an organization she quit five years ago, impressed voters with her articulate, polished image. The first woman to capture the presidency, Robinson is as notable for her & political radicalism as for her gender, and her election signaled a shift away from traditional attitudes among the electorate.

The new President's reforming views are hardly likely to find favor with the theologically conservative Daly, but together they could prove a powerful combination against the I.R.A.