It’s no surprise to anyone familiar with Northern Ireland that religious and cultural identity are closely bound up together, with Catholics identifying mainly as Irish and Protestants predominantly as British.
The lines have become more fluid since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement recognized that the people of Northern Ireland may define themselves as British, Irish ‘or both’, and since Brexit there has been an increase in northerners getting Irish passports, yet the basic difference in how people identify themselves remains.
To a degree inconceivable in the Republic or most parts of Great Britain, in Northern Ireland religious affiliation influences where people live and what sports they follow, with Gaelic games receiving mainly Catholic support.
The question is to what extent these are purely tribal identities and to what degree they reflect genuine religious faith.
Even lapsed Catholics identify as religious in Northern Ireland
Undoubtedly, the long years of discrimination experienced by Catholics in the north has given rise to a stronger sense of loyalty to the faith than exists south of the border, and it’s well-known that Northern Ireland’s non religious population is disproportionately of a Protestant background.
Lapsed Catholics still describe themselves as Catholic at the census, whereas ‘lapsed Protestant’ seems a rare phenomenon.
Research recently published by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has drawn considerable attention, highlighting how church attendance is considerably higher in Northern Ireland than in either the Republic of Ireland or in Great Britain.
“The Turning Tide”, as the research is called, has also led to debate on how church attendance in Ireland generally remains higher than in most of Europe, despite a major decline in the past three decades:
Discrepancies with the census results
Researched by Emily Nelson and Stephen Bullivant, it finds 32% of Republic of Ireland adults, and 42% of young adults, say they have no religion, a figure vastly higher than the census figure of 14%. The reasons for the discrepancy are debated in the survey, but one factor not mentioned is that census forms are filled in by parents, who will often put down all their children as Catholics, regardless of their attendance or beliefs.
Only Portugal (28%) and Italy (22%) have lower rates of non-religiousness than Ireland, while the level is vastly higher in the UK, as well as in France, the Netherlands and Sweden. 31% of Republic of Ireland Catholics attend Mass weekly, just behind Italy, but well below Poland (49%) and Slovakia (46%).
Northern Ireland more religious that the UK and the Republic
Regarding the contrast between Northern Ireland and the Republic, the document states: “The United Kingdom is a significantly more non-religious country than is the Republic of Ireland, with 55% of the adult population identifying with no religion over the period covered in our pooled data. Northern Ireland is, by a very long distance, the most religiously affiliating region of the United Kingdom, with just 24% with no religion. But it is also, also by a good margin, the most religiously affiliating part of the island of Ireland: the equivalent rate for the Republic is 32% (not pictured) identifying with no religion over the same period. Meanwhile, a third each of Northern Irish adults identify as Catholic (34%) and Other Christian (35%), compared to the UK averages of 10% and 27%, respectively.”
It adds: “The exceptional nature of Northern Irish religiosity is even clearer when we look at religious practice… Here, reported weekly-or-more attendance, at 35%, is triple the UK average, at 12%. Among Catholics specifically, Northern Ireland also stands out, with 41% reporting weekly-or-more attendance, compared to a UK average of 28%. Compared to other UK regions, only Catholics in the West Midlands (40%), Scotland (33%), and North East (31%) come close.”
Some possible reasons for the discrepancy
The reasons for the stronger Catholic resilience in the north are not discussed in detail but undoubtedly reflect the complex interplay between religion and identity in Northern Ireland, where one’s place of abode and choice of sporting code is to a great extent determined by religion, with Catholics usually identifying as Irish and Protestants as British, even though the Good Friday Agreement acknowledges the right of all people of Northern Ireland to declare themselves British, Irish or both.
By contrast, in the Republic both Catholics and Protestants identify as Irish only.
An interesting statistic which has received little attention is that 18% of Catholics in the Republic were born elsewhere. Undoubtedly, the arrival of many Catholic immigrants has given a welcome boost at a time when many parishes faced potential extinction.
While the report does say that attendance among immigrants is neither higher nor lower than among natives, I suspect the researchers could find significant variations if they looked into countries of origin, with Mass attendance lower among Europeans than those from Africa, India, the Philippines or Latin America.
The findings in this regard mirror the census data, which finds most immigrants to the Republic are either Catholics or of other Christian denominations, with only about five percent being Muslims and a somewhat smaller proportion of other faiths such as Hindu, despite growth from a small initial base.
Protestantism in the republic should no longer be ignored
The report also acknowledges the growth of other Christian denominations, reflecting the census data which has shown a dramatic growth in the Republic’s Protestant population in the last three decades, after a long decline, as well as the emergence of a significant Orthodox population. Terminology is significant, however, as some of the newer Christian groups might be reluctant to use the term ‘Protestant’. Nonetheless, the mushrooming of southern Irish Protestantism, in contrast to the decline north of the border, is an irony which has received remarkably little attention, and is ignored by Irish politicians.
The above is but a snapshot of a very extensive report which undoubtedly will generate a great deal of debate.
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