Religion

All Saints

Ireland, the proverb goes, is the "Land of Saints and Scholars."

True enough in the 6th through 9th centuries, when Irish monks and scholars almost single handedly preserved the scholarly traditions of the fallen Roman Empire. Irish abbots founded renowned centers of learning throughout Europe, and kings like Charlemagne sought out Irish scholars to crown the glories of their courts.

These days Ireland still has the highest percentage of regular church goers in Western Europe.

The Numbers

The churches Irish folks attend are overwhelmingly Catholic. 92% of the Republic's populace is Roman Catholic. 3% identify themselves as Protestant, and the remainder claim no religious beliefs, or belong to the small communities of believers such as Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Orthodox.

The huge influx of mostly Catholic Eastern Europeans has, if anything, strengthened the Catholic Church. The latest surveys (late 2007) suggest that church attendance is climbing after more than a decade of decline.

Religious Tolerance

Discrimination based on religion is almost non-existentent. In fact, in 1992 a Muslim was elected to the Dail, or Parliament, and in the 1992-97 Dail, 3 Jews were elected as representatives (TD's). This, despite the fact that Jewish community totals only around one thousand members as did the Muslim community in the early 90's.

The Jewish Cemetery outside Dublin has been vandalized a few times and so has the Synagogue in Terenure, Dublin. But, these have been isolated incidents and I don't think reflect the broader tolerance of the general community. For information about the Jewish Community in Ireland, as well as contact information and links, try here.

The Muslim community has been growing rapidly but still numbers only around 30,000 according to the 2006 census. Following September 11 there were reports that several Al Quaeda fundraisers were using Ireland as a base. They skedaddled swiftly. But, there has been no serious incidents of racial intolerance perpetrated upon or by this community that I've heard of. Of course, some bigots will always have a go at people with different clothes or skin colour, but it certainly does not represent the outlook of the vast majority of the Irish people. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland has an excellent website which provides contact information, an events calendar, etc.

The Church of Ireland is the inheritor of many of Ireland's finest old churches. This was the established and only state recognized religion of the 1700's. In the third millennium, it is suffering a steady loss of membership. Nonetheless, there are still active churches throughout Ireland. The Church of Ireland is close kin to the Episcopalian churches and the Church of England. It is still the largest protestant denomination in Ireland. You can find a list churches and their contact information here.

The Catholic Church Begins the 3rd Millenium

The Catholic Church has been the leading provider of education within Ireland until very recently. For more on religion and the schools, click here.

The relationship between the people and the church is complex, never more so than lately when unquestioned acceptance of the Church's moral authority has been rocked by a series of scandals involving pedophile priests and a popular bishop who turned out to be using diocesan funds to support a mistress and son.

Nonetheless, attend a Sunday Mass and you will see thre great majority of the community in attendance. Roughly half of all Irish attend Mass every week. The Catholic Church's commanding authority over day to day life has ended, but it still is one of the Republic's key and uniting institutions.

CatholicIreland.net is an excellent portal site for all things related to the Catholic Church in Ireland. There are also links to find times for local mass and contact information for churches throughout Ireland.

Church Groups for the Youngsters

Church related youth groups - there are none. But, I don't think that's because the nation has basically gone agnostic (which it has). In America the churches since the early 1700's were never universal. So, churches had to make a special effort to involve their congregations and deal with all the other worldly distractions.

But, here, until the 1970's, there was only one universal church, everyone went to mass, all were part of the congregation, people stopped what they were doing in the shops to say the Angelus together, the church was everywhere. So, things like special church groups (choirs excepted) just didn't evolve. When kids stopped playing in order to say the Angelus, there wasn't a need for special youth groups. Every kid in Ireland was part of the Catholic Church group.

Now, of course, there are a zillion competing interests, but there's no tradition at all of youth groups, bible study groups, etc. What has sprung up are church prayer groups, but these rarely involve the younger set.