Once reputed as the “land of saints and scholars” Ireland is now more commonly referred to as a “post-Catholic” country. In 1946, the Census recorded that 94 per cent of the population identified as Roman Catholic just three years before Ireland became a republic. This overwhelming statistic is reflected in the formation of the state within which the Catholic Church held a “special position” establishing a long and complex history between Church and state, religion and culture.
The merging of religion with national identity has contributed to some of our history’s most gruesome stains; from sectarianism to institutional abuse, the curtain of shame and secrecy enforced by the Church’s conservative teachings only began to slip around the 1990s. The 1991 Census reported that 91.6 per cent of the population still identified as Roman Catholic. On October 3rd 1992, when Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on the American TV show Saturday Night Live in protest of abuse within the Catholic Church, she faced career-ending backlash. In 1993, 155 bodies were exhumed from the grounds of a Magdalene Laundry in Drumcondra, 22 of which were discovered upon removal. The more evident the Catholic Church’s association with the troubling areas of Irish history becomes, the clearer the dwindling numbers of those that identify as Roman Catholic across the nation becomes. The most recent census in 2022 reported that just 69 per cent of the population still identify as Roman Catholic, thirty years later.
The period known as the Troubles (1968 to 1998), was fueled by sectarian as well as political division. Amid violence on both sides, religious identity became increasingly political. Certain organisations or career paths were recognised as either Protestant or Catholic spaces only, impacting people’s futures, relationships, and how they chose to live their lives, with many struggling to reconcile their national and religious identities. The Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs’ Third Report states that Catholics who contemplated joining the RUC (Northern Irish armed police force) during this time “have faced the prospect of divorcing themselves from the community in which they grew up in [sic]”. Indeed, the Catholic Church did not permit its members to attend Trinity College Dublin without special dispensation until 1970.
In March 2023, the Irish government commissioned a scoping inquiry report into sexual abuse allegations in schools. It found that there were almost 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse made during the period between the 1960s and 1990s in over 308 schools led by religious orders in the country. It is only in recent years, and in the wake of this report, that the true extent of this abuse has come to light. The Iona Institute published a report in May 2025, investigating the question “what do Irish people think about the Catholic Church and religion?” Of those surveyed with an “unfavourable view” of the Catholic Church, 42 per cent cited abuse as a factor, and 31 per cent the history and reputation of Church scandals.
The McAleese report published in February 2013 began to unravel the true horrors experienced by at least 10,000 women and girls in Magdalene Laundries in Ireland between 1922 and 1996 while under the care of nuns. An investigation launched in 2015 by the Irish government into mother and baby homes run by Catholic nuns, found that approximately 9,000 children died across 18 institutions, with the remains of 802 children found on the grounds of a Tuam home. The Sisters of Bon Secours who ran the home at Tuam admitted in 2021 that these nuns “did not live up to our Christianity when running the home”.
As education diversified, becoming more accessible, and media and television took on a new shape, Irish society began to move away from strict conservative views. The Fifth Amendment in 1972 removed the “special position” of the Catholic Church, providing recognition of other religions. The Late Late Show became a platform for debate on taboo topics such as contraception and divorce. Previously unchallenged, there was now an alternative opinion to the censorship of the Church. In 2025, the Iona Institute’s report found that amongst unfavourable opinions of the Catholic church, “younger people are more likely to cite ‘old-fashioned views’ as the source of their negative opinions”. By the time the referendums on abortion and same-sex marriage were to be held, the Church’s influence had declined immensely.
“Post-Catholic” Ireland is emerging with a Catholic population still holding the majority, however existing more as a shared culture rather than a practiced faith, with many turning to habits of culture rather than acts of devotion, such as the ritual of saying a prayer to St Anthony to find lost keys. 78 per cent of those surveyed by the Iona Institute identified as Roman Catholic, but only 16 per cent said they regularly attend mass. Of the 18 to 24 age group, 52 per cent said they identified as Roman Catholic, but just 6 per cent were regular mass goers.
54 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds said they were religious or spiritual in some sense, with the report highlighting potentially new ways of practicing spirituality amongst younger generations. 23 per cent of this age group said they follow social media accounts that share content of a religious or spiritual nature, with 21 per cent watching content on YouTube about religious and/or spiritual themes.
Grace, a Trinity student and former attendee of a Catholic secondary school, stated that she no longer actively practices Catholicism, “but because it was so ingrained in my life and throughout my childhood, going to a Catholic school and also just within Irish culture in general, it’s hard not to view it as an important part of my identity”.
“I definitely think our generation is far more separated from religion as a whole, with at least in my experience most people I talk to either being agnostic or aligning themselves with a religion due to their family or other circumstances but not necessarily practicing it.”
Speaking with a DCU student who gave insight into her experience growing up Muslim in a predominantly Catholic Ireland, she said, “I don’t particularly see Catholicism being engrained in Irish identity, as all of the Catholics I’ve met have been open and curious about Islam leading to interfaith dialogue, hence why I’ve never felt alienated”. In contrast to the experience of many Catholic students who no longer identify as practicing, this student stated, “as I reached my adolescence, I experienced many diverse environments, interacting with students from different backgrounds and I soon found I was one of the few Muslims in my class. My connection with my religion did not waiver, in fact it grew stronger”.
While some have stepped away entirely from Catholicism, unable to reconcile their faith with the failings of institutions, others attempt to approach it in a more simplified or deconstructed manner, practicing “a la carte” faith. Grace said, “while I don’t practice it most of the time, religion definitely can provide comfort in certain scenarios. I do find myself saying a mental prayer or blessing myself when I pass a funeral, so it’s almost like second nature at this point, a force of habit”.
