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Sociology 1 Lecture 2: Secularisation
Speaking in 1996, the then Moderator of the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr Harry
Allen, claimed that Dublin is now: ‘one of
the most secular cities in Europe, where vast
numbers of people, especially those under 40,
have no significant church connection’.
Examination of these aspects of religious experience might help us to determine whether
Ireland is indeed becoming a secular society.
UCD Politics Professor Brigid Laffan argues that Ireland is not secularising as rapidly
as might appear. While attitudes have changed
considerably, changes in religious practice are
not dramatic. We will examine this claim
through the material presented later in this
lecture.
On the other hand writer Fr. Andrew Greely
points out that ‘the end of organised religion,
so cheerfully predicted by the wise men of
the Enlightenment, seems so long overdue
after a couple of centuries that there is no
point in waiting for it’. This is what is referred to in your textbook (p520) as the
‘myth of secularisation’.
Laffan suggests there has been a change in
the role of religion in Irish life. She argues
that the Roman Catholic church in Ireland
has lost its ‘moral monopoly’ and that individual Catholics now want and expect to
make up their own minds about matters of
private sexual morality. This is borne out by
survey results.
What is meant by ‘secular’ in these contexts?
Secularisation can be described as the process whereby religion loses its influence over
social life and society. It is a complex phenomenon and relates to some or all of the
following:

decline of the prestige and influence of
religion as an institution

an increased focus on ‘this world’ and
abandonment of focus on ‘other worlds’
such as the spirit world or ‘the hereafter’

privatisation of religious practice and a
move away from community-based religious activity

a shift towards ‘scientific’ and rational
explanations for phenomena: desacralisation
As a result the role of the Church may have
changed from one of policing private morality to one of public intervention in issues of
public policy, such as poverty, overseas aid,
and ethics. This would bring it more into line
with the situation in many other European
and western societies.
Secularisation is of concern to all the churches in Ireland, and to many social commentators. It has also been of great interest to sociologists.
It has been argued that in many societies, we
are seeing the emergence of the ‘social
church’: one where people seek religious values without the social commitment involved.
For example Dr Allen has reported on ‘social
baptisms’ amongst Spanish Anglicans, ‘where
families, suitably dressed, arrive at the church
door, take photographs, and then proceed to
the hotel for a meal, without ever going into
the church. This also happens at confirmation time. They keep the custom but refuse
the commitment’.
As we have seen, ‘religion’ itself has many
sides: from personal beliefs about spirituality,
to institutional structures like schools and
hospitals, to the influence of religious bodies
over legislation. All of these aspects are highly relevant in the Irish context.
Before coming to any conclusions about the
extent of secularisation in Ireland, it is useful
to look at the historical role of the churches
(in particular the Roman Catholic Church)
and at some of the possible indicators of
change.
In the previous lecture we noted the key aspects of religion:
Church & society

symbols

reverence/awe

rituals/special behaviour

a community of believers
In 1987 Tom Inglis (in the first edition of
his book Moral Monopoly) was able to say that
Ireland was a particularly religious country:
‘one of the first impressions of the country
that marks it out as different from other
Western societies is that the Catholic Church
is a strong and active force in everyday life’.
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Sociology 1 Lecture 2: Secularisation
We can ask, why and how has religion acquired such a central role in Irish social life?
life has made it a target for movements for
social change: political, economic and social.
Inglis suggests that, ‘it is as if the Irish have
always been a holy and religious people who
are devoted to the Catholic Church’. There is
a notion that the Irish are ‘almost naturally
Catholic’. However historians have shown
that despite the ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’ image, that Ireland has not always been
this way. For example it was only with the
rise of the Catholic middle-class in the late
19th century that Mass attendance leaped
from its mid-century rate of approximately
35% to its turn-of-the-century level of 90%.
Sociological analyses
Given its centrality in Irish social life, Irish
sociologists (apart from the work of Inglis)
have failed to produce much description or
analysis of the power of the Catholic Church
in contemporary Irish society’. Much of the
sociological research that has been carried
out on the Catholic Church has been done by
the Church itself and, not surprisingly, turns
out to be less than critical of the institution.
According to Inglis: ‘the main problem with
this research is that it has concentrated on
gathering facts and data, usually through social surveys, and has avoided dealing with the
larger, more general questions about the position and influence of the Church.’ As mentioned in the previous lecture, the research
has tended to be positivist and to favour attitude research and data-collection.
Many explanations have been suggested for
the almost unparalleled power of the Catholic
Church in Ireland in the period between the
Famine and the 1980s.
Hornsby-Smith & Whelan stress that the
development of the Church was ‘the outcome of a complex interaction between social, political and religious change'’. Historians suggest the following as key factors:

anti-Anglicisation, the development of a
separate national identity

the decline of the cottier (landless) class
due to new land tenure arrangements and
the Famine. It was amongst this class
that older alternative belief systems were
prevalent

the rationalisation of Irish society with
urbanisation and increasing integration
into ‘modern’ society

the growth of religious belief and practice as a response to rapid social change

the increasing ‘respectability’ of society:
the growth of moral discipline, especially
as a forerunner to modernisation

class analysis: religion suited the British
Empire and Irish ruling class – as a distraction from class struggle
Belief in God
In a recent study of 23 European nations
conducted by the International Social Survey
Programme, the majority of every nation except the Czech Republic and the former East
Germany believed in God. In five of the
countries - Cyprus, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland and Portugal more than nine
out of 10 believe in God. This perhaps can
be taken as a basic indicator of religious sensibility. What about religious practice?
Religious practice
Fr. Mac Gréil’s work Prejudice in Ireland revisited
examines trends in religious practice in Ireland over the period from 1972/73 to
1988/89 – as measured by his survey. As he
points out, any attempt to measure religiosity
is ‘of necessity, limited and selective’.
His work is complemented by the research
undertaken by the European Values project
and by more recent opinion poll research
undertaken by the MRBI for media organisations and the churches themselves.
The very strength of the Roman Catholic
Church in this period may have set it up for a
greater and more rapid fall: for the Church
has become increasingly identified as a reactionary and Establishment institution that is
unable to change with the times. Its very
dominance over the intellectual and political
Taken together, this data indicates a fairly
rapid and accelerating change in religious
practices: but a process that is highly variable
in terms of the sociological variables of location, class, gender and age.
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Sociology 1 Lecture 2: Secularisation
Religious affiliation
portant" obligation, but the figure increased
to 45 per cent in Munster and in Connacht/Ulster.
The religious affiliation of the population of
the Republic of Ireland is overwhelmingly
Roman Catholic (at 94%). Only about 1% of
Mac Gréil’s sample described themselves as
having ‘no religion’, while less than 5% came
from other Christian denominations. This
roughly reflects Census figures.
In Mac Gréil’s opinion, urbanisation (especially in relation to residence in Dublin) is
‘the strongest factor causing decline in
Church attendance’. He suggests that this
may be due to a ‘lack of community’ in the
city – though offers no evidence to support
this.
For Mac Gréil the tiny proportion of the
population describing themselves as of ‘no
religion’ indicates ‘the widespread importance
of religion as part of the Irish person’s selfidentity’. The lack of growth of alternative religious denominations may be due to the lack
of inward migration into Ireland. Of course
this may change as immigration becomes a
more established feature of Irish society.
A number of other reasons for the decline
have been suggested:
Religious activity

convergence with European and Western figures generally (figures are much
lower for other ‘Catholic’ countries like
France, Spain and Italy)

church scandals – starting with Bishop
Eamon Casey in 1992 and now including
numerous cases of sexual and physical
abuse in Church-run institutions, as well
as individual cases of sexual and financial
abuse

the media – as a supplier of alternative
value systems (Inglis) and alternative
ways of passing time and socialising (eg
soap operas)
Church membership, according to Mac Gréil,
may be measured according to:

participation in religious activity

commitment to religious beliefs and
norms

acceptance by co-believers

formal registration of membership
Prayer remains popular, with nearly 40% of
people claiming to pray several times a day,
and only 10% praying less than once a week.
Mac Gréil suggests that ‘the practice of prayer on a regular basis must indicate a strong
degree of belief’. The least likely to pray are
those that are most educated and most urbanised. Mac Gréil surmises that there may
be a decline in occasions like ‘family rosary or
regular family prayers’. This view is supported by Archbishop Dermot Clifford who
suggests that ‘family prayer would seem to be
the victim of the modern age: television, telephones and the pace of life had squeezed
out the family rosary’.
His own study aims to measure only the first
two of these factors. He suggests that ‘levels
of participation in Mass and in the Sacraments are generally accepted as basic
measures of active Church membership’. At a
deeper or more exacting level, ‘various forms
of pastoral and evangelising activity’ are also
important criteria.
Weekly Mass attendance
Surveys show that weekly mass attendance
has declined from a figure of 87% of Catholics, to around 60% in the period 1981-98
(see Table 1). The highest levels of Mass attendance are found in Connaught/Ulster and
the lowest amongst those brought up in
Dublin.
Confession has sharply declined as a religious activity, with over a tenth of Mac
Gréil’s respondents saying they never went.
Mac Gréil suggests that this reflects a substantial change in the nature of Catholicism
in Ireland that ‘merits serious theological and
pastoral examination’. There has also been
some decline in what Inglis calls the ‘magical’
aspects of Catholicism: the use of religious
medals, Holy water, pilgrimages and retreats.
Most recent survey research (reported in Dec
2000) indicates that only 14% of 18-24 old
saw Mass attendance as important. However
the percentage of committed, weekly Mass
goers rose rapidly through the age cohorts
until it reached 74 per cent for those 65+.
Dubliners, at 30 per cent, were least committed to attending Sunday Mass as a "very im-
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Sociology 1 Lecture 2: Secularisation
When asked if they saw their religious upbringing as a ‘hindrance’, very few of Mac
Gréil’s respondents did. But the importance
of religion in one’s upbringing has become
far less marked since 1972/73. Mac Gréil
suggests that there may be ‘changes in the
place of religion in the socialisation of the
young . . .the religiosity of the homes and of
the schools may be modifying somewhat’. He
concludes that ‘any rise in secularism in primary socialisation will inevitably result in a
reduction in the perceived importance of religion in the growth and development of the
person’.
ence in relation to people’s decisions in relation to moral (especially sexual) matters. This
is borne out by the survey research.
According to an Irish Times/MRBI opinion
poll carried out in late 1997, only 21% of
Catholics follow the teaching of their church
when it comes to making ‘serious moral decisions’, compared to 78% who ‘follow their
own conscience’. This figure rises to 92% for
18-34 year olds.
More than half of the people surveyed by
MRBI disagreed to varying extents on the
church's attitude to divorce, contraception,
priestly celibacy and women priests.
However over 85% of Mac Gréil’s sample
said they felt ‘extremely’ (25%) or ‘somewhat’
close to God, leading him to comment, once
again, on the ‘strong religious ethos of the
population’.
Conclusion
This lecture has only scratched the surface in
relation to secularisation. In particular it has
not attempted to examine the position of the
Church as an institution: particularly in
terms of its control of education, much of
the health and welfare services and large
amounts of wealth and property. Interested
people are referred to the new edition of
Tom Inglis’s book, Moral Monopoly, published
this year, which remains the most comprehensive sociological study of religion in Ireland.
Vocations have obviously experienced a
massive decline in Ireland, as in the rest of
western Europe. The number of students
training for the priesthood in the seminaries
in Maynooth, Dublin, Thurles, Waterford
and Carlow is about 220. Two decades ago
there were 600 studying at Maynooth alone
(see Table 2). However, as Mac Gréil points
out, this is not due to parental resistance: the
vast majority of his respondents would welcome their child becoming a nun or priest
(presumably safe in the knowledge that it is
extremely unlikely to occur!).
Who is religious?
Factors such as education and class seem to
have fairly contradictory effects on religiosity
that need to be teased out further.
The least religious people, according to Mac
Gréil, are those that are either tertiary educated or have incomplete secondary education, work in non-manual jobs, are Dublinborn, and are single males aged 21-35.
The most religious people are primaryeducated, well-off Connaught/Ulster widows
aged over 51. In fact widows are so religious
that Mac Gréil suggests that ‘the religious
practice of widowed respondents approaches
that of those living a ‘regular life’ in religious
orders’.
The church and morality
It has often been remarked that the Catholic
(and other) church(es) are losing their influ-
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Sociology 1 Lecture 2: Secularisation
Table 1: weekly mass attendance in the Republic of Ir eland
1981-1998
Year
%
Comments
Source
1998
94% older people
Survey of Diocese of Cashel and
Emly published in Irish Times
1998
92% people over 65
MRBI poll for Irish Times
1981
87% all people
European Values Survey
1998
87% Connacht/Ulster people
MRBI poll for Irish Times
1990
85% all people
European Values Survey
1988/89 82% all people
Mac Gréil (1996)
1998
66% all people
MRBI poll for Irish Times
1998
60% people 18-34
Survey of Diocese of Cashel and
Emly published in Irish Times
1998
60% all people
RTE Prime Time poll
1998
50% Dubliners
MRBI poll for Irish Times
1998
41% 18-24 yr olds
MRBI poll for Irish Times
1990
40% urban unemployed
European Values Survey
Table 2: Numbers entering Maynooth seminary
Year
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1988
1986
No
18
26
37
40
<40
51
61
76
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