Leaving Certificate Section I Religion: The Irish Experience
Part 1 Patterns of change
Topic 1.1 Patterns of change in religious belief
Please note that the following article is background information only on this topic. It in no way
constitutes a sample or exemplary answer on this topic.
Patterns of Change
1.1 Patterns of Change in religious Belief
(a)Patterns of religious belief in Ireland today
Population of Republic of Ireland = 3,917,336 (2006 figure from CSO is 4,239,848)
Population of Northern Ireland = 1,685,267
In the country as a whole 74% claim to be Roman Catholic, 6.7% = Church of Ireland,
6.6% = Presbyterian. (Based on 2002 and 2001 census)
These figures represent perceived identities but are inflated when compared to the
churches’ own assessments regarding religious practice. Therefore we need to consult
the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) of 1998 and the European Values
Survey (EVS) of 1999.
Roman Catholicism denotes the faith and practice of Christians who are in communion
with the pope. Catholics profess a continued tradition of faith and worship, and hold to
the apostolic succession of bishops and priests since the time of Christ. The leader of the
Church in Ireland is the Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of All-Ireland (Sean Brady).
It has 26 dioceses and 4 provinces and archbishops. There are 1,365 parishes; 3,400
priests, 20,000 religious here. 2,973 missionary religious work in over 90 countries
worldwide. 88.8% of the population of the Republic call themselves Roman Catholic.
40.3% of Northern Ireland are R.C.
The Church of Ireland is a self-governing church within Anglicanism. The bases of
Anglican doctrine include the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer the 39Articles and the
two Books of Homilies. The church is led by the Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of
All-Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin, the Primate of Ireland. It has 12 dioceses, 40
parishes, 540 priests/ministers (male and female). The Church of Ireland was the state
church until it was disestablished in 1869. The general synod is the chief legislative
body. It consists of bishops, clergy and laity. 3% in the ROI claim to be Church of
Ireland. It is 15.3% in NI.
The Presbyterian Church is governed by 4 interrelated bodies:
 The session of the local congregation consisting of the minister and the elected
elders
 The presbytery (21 in Ireland) made up of ministers and representative elders
from within a defined area, overseeing sessions, congregations and ministers
within its area
 The Synod consisting of the presbyteries of a larger specific area and
 The general assembly of ministers and elders elected by the presbyteries
throughout Ireland.
Within these bodies ministers and elders have equal voices and decisions are reached
after a ballot. The authority of the Scriptures is central to their living. Their leader is the
moderator, always a minister, who is elected for a one-year term of office. They have
560 ministers in Ireland. The ministry was opened to women in 1972. 0.57% in the ROI
profess to be Presbyterian, 20.7% in NI.
Of the remaining 12.8% of the population on the island, 5.7% prefer not to state their
religious affiliation or claim to have no religion, being agnostics, atheists or Humanists.
The small but significant number claiming to have “no religion” is indicative of a
movement towards a more secular society. This trend should be viewed with the ROI’s
almost universal theism. Other Christian denominations include the Methodists, Baptists,
Congregationalists, Free Presbyterians, Christian Brethren, Non-Subscribing
Presbyterians, Reformed Presbyterians, Evangelical Presbyterians, Pentecostals, The
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Moravians and Lutherans. Some are members of
the Orthodox Church or the Salvation Army. Some adhere to the non-Trinitarian
Churches like Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of the Latter-day Saints
(Mormons). A small number belong to sects or cults. An increasing number belong to
non-Christian World Religions such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism – or to
offshoots of these like the Baha’i faith. There are 1500 Jews in Ireland, mostly in Dublin
and Belfast. It is a non-proselytising faith and accepts the idea of a single, unique,
incorporeal God who will redeem the world through the Messiah. Only in the last decade
have the other Major World Faiths impacted on Ireland. According to the 2002 census in
the ROI there are 19,147 Muslims, 3,894 Buddhists and 3,099 Hindus. With 0.49% of
the population Islam is the fourth largest religious grouping in the ROI.
Hence, Christianity is a vital force in Ireland, which has the highest % of practicing
members in Western Europe. Ireland also has a small but significant number of people
who are committed members of other faiths. Very few Irish people do not believe in
God. (Walsh, p.18)
(b) The changing patterns of religious belief, especially among young people
in Ireland
Many young people in Ireland today believe in God, are committed to Christ, pray daily
and regularly attend church. They are prepared to witness to their faith by full
participation in liturgies, caring for the sick, lonely, aged, bereaved and needy. Their
membership of the Church is often lived out by supporting initiatives for peace, civil
rights and the protection of the environment. Some have an enhanced involvement by
belonging to groups such as Search or Youth 2000. This attachment to the Church is all
the more credible because
 The pressures to conform to the expectations of society – parents, teachers and
neighbours – are much less than they were even a generation ago, and
 Church-going is increasingly seen as an activity practiced by the middle-aged or
elderly and by women.
Others see religion in a more private way, as something for the individual. They believe
in God. Christ can be as real and important to these youths as their churchgoing peers
but many try to follow their own spiritual quest without institutions. They see churches
as unnecessary because “people have God within them”. They also say that their church
fails to connect with their lives, that rituals, sermons and catechetical teaching are
irrelevant, and that they are bored by Sunday worship (p.19).
Some young people are disillusioned with the institutional Church and despise the
hypocrisy that they claim it displays. Its perceived wealth may have caused them
scandal; the fact that so-called Christians fight each other in the name of religion (in
Ireland in particular) may have disgusted them. The conduct of some priests and
religious has proved a real stumbling block for them. For some excessively scrupulously
individuals, personal frailty may have led to decisions that a lifestyle was incompatible
with Church membership. Others have drifted away; leaving home, socialising at
weekends, the burden of working on Sundays or other reasons may have distracted them
and without consciously coming to a decision to cease practicing they have simply lost
the habit of going to church.
Some are unhappy with the world as they experience it and join a new religious
movement with a “world-rejecting” thrust, such as Krishna Consciousness, in order to
lead lives separated from conventional society. Others seek membership of “worldaffirming” movements which promise “human growth” leading to power, status and
personal attractiveness (as does Scientology, although it is not a religion as such).
Finally, there are those who deny that God exists or hold that God cannot be known.
Humanists reject the supernatural and belief in a god. They put human interests and the
mind of the person as paramount. They often commit themselves to improving the lot of
humans. Agnostics (from the Greek word agnostos – unknown or unknowable) hold that
we can know nothing of things beyond material phenomena. Atheists (from the Greek
word atheos – denying the gods) claim that God does not exist and that religion is at best
a silly preoccupation and at worst a mechanism by which humanity is misled and
exploited.
( C) The European pattern of religious belief
Over the past 150 years in Europe (comparatively reliable records were kept) there
seems to have been a decline in religious practice and in the overall significance of
Christianity for individuals and societies. This process has been termed secularisation.
Over the past 50 years many European nations have had to deal with the advent of ethnic
minorities of other non-Christian faiths. The homogeneously Christian Europe of before
the Second World War has disappeared (p.20).
There has been a decline in membership and attendance in the traditional churches as
well, apparently, as a decline in the significance of religion in the lives of many ordinary
people. (Civil marriages in registry offices, for example, have increased noticeably in
the last 2 decades.) People seem less ready to take their moral lead from the churches.
The influence of churches over governmental policy appears to have diminished.
According to some sociologists the secularisation of Western Europe has occurred for a
number of reasons:
 scientific explanations have diminished belief in supernatural explanations of
events;
 the social pressures which caused people to attend church in order to be seen
rather than to express sincere religious convictions have disappeared;
 the break-up of the traditional family has meant that young people are no longer
socialised into attending church;
 consumerism and materialism have provided seductive alternatives to Sunday
observance.
In France, in 1999 to 2000, 60%of adults claimed that they never attended church. In
East Germany the figure was 57%, the people of the Czech Republic 56%, and the
British 55%. The ROI was one of five European nations that scored below 10% (the
others being Malta, Greece, Poland and Romania).
Since the 1990’s the “No religious affiliation” rates have increased slightly in many
European countries, notably, France, West Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and
Belgium. 72% of the British claim to believe in God. Figures for other countries
include: 72% of Belgians, 87% of the Spanish. Although many accuse Britain of
increased secularisation the critics point out that church attendance is not synonymous
with belief in God. Many British still use the church for the rites of passage: baptisms,
marriages and funerals. 60% of initiation rites, 70% of first marriages and 80% of
funerals are still celebrated in church.
Critics of the secularisation thesis point out that falling church attendance rated merely
signify that those who go to church on Sundays do so voluntarily and because they
believe, rather than out of social obligation or to underline their superior social status.
They say that 19th century church attendance figures cannot be used for comparative
purposes, as Victorian methods of data collection do not meet today’s standards of
reliability. Nor, they claim, can we look back on some imagined golden age of religion
with which to compare unfavourably present trends: apart from movements like
Methodism the power of the church in the middle ages may actually have been
eminently successful secularisation rather than the triumph of the spiritual.
The modern Church’s targeting of specifically religious matters, then, may indicate a
more concentrated form of religion, unadulterated by involvement with secular concerns
such as politics. It may also reflect a shift in the focus of religion away from
identification with the state, the economy and power towards the needs and aspirations
of ordinary people and a concern for the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.
The European Values Study offers insights into the European pattern of religious belief.
The pan-European EVS survey provides data about
 the attachment of the citizens of 33 countries to institutional religion as measured
by 3 indicators (Church membership, church attendance and confidence in the
Church) and
 informal or privatised religion in these societies.
The most recent EVS was conducted in 1999, an innovative venture as it included in its
trawl data for Soviet-bloc countries. The 1981 and 1990 EVS surveys had focused
exclusively on Western Europe.
The 1999 EVS finds that, regarding Church membership, 9% of the ROI claim no
religious affiliation. This figure is very low by European standards. The highest levels
of disaffiliation are to be found in the former Soviet-bloc countries of East Germany,
Estonia and the Czech Republic, but the level for The Netherlands (55%) is high, and the
levels for France, Belgium and Sweden are similar to many other onetime Communist
societies. The ROI, Malta and Poland had rates of 75% or more regarding church
attendance at least once per month. 14 societies have rates of less than 20% in this
category (p.23).
Adapted from ‘Religion: The Irish Experience’, J. R. Walsh
Into the Classroom series, Veritas 2003