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 how Great Britain.
“The Turning Tide” has also led to debate on how attendance in Ireland generally remains higher than in most of Europe, despite a major decline in the past three decades: https://www.catholicbishops.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Turning-Tide-Final-Draft.pdf
Researched by Emily Nelson and Stephen Bullivant, it finds 32% of Irish 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-religious than Ireland, while the level is vastly higher here in the UK, as well as 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%).
However, it’s only 17% among those aged 16-29, though this still contrasts with Austria, where Mass attendance is among the young is practically non-existent.
To put all this in context, it’s worth recalling the Republic long had a 95% Catholic population. For many reasons, this declined over time and was 69% at the last census, though, as outlined above, ‘Catholic’ is a nominal term, concealing the fact that weekly attendance was 91% in 1973 and is now at 31%, on the bishops’ own figures.
There was a particularly rapid decline in the 1990s, from 77 percent in 1994 to 60 percent in 1998, in the years immediately following the initial revelations about clerical sexual abuse cases. The decline in the 1990s and subsequently has had a knock on effect over time, with those who lapsed then rearing their children outside of the Church, and now there is a third generation.
Whether there are signs in Ireland of the ‘Quiet Revival’ often discussed here in the UK and elsewhere is alluded to in the survey, but without any firm conclusions. It has been noted that there has been an increase in adult baptisms of late, though some of that is undoubtedly down to immigrants.
In fact, 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 Hindus, despite growth from a small initial base.
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.
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 affiliated 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 (fig. 1.10). 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.”
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.
The survey does find widespread disagreement with the Catholic Church on sexual issues, and adds: “More recently, a 2023 Barna study found that, in certain respects, Irish teens are more religious than their global peers. Just over three in five (62%) Irish teens identify as a Christian while nearly one-third are atheist, agnostic or of no faith. Even amongst those who consider themselves Christians widespread apathy and scepticism about Jesus exists. Many are unengaged with the Bible, but a majority are at least open including non-Christians, possibly due to a perceived lack of adequate Biblical instruction. Teens generally concentrate on aspects of God they consider appealing (Barna 2023).”
“In the UK, younger individuals are less likely to identify as Catholics, but those who do so are more likely to believe and practice in normatively Catholic ways than are older Catholics. This is partly due to ‘survivorship bias’ meaning this generation more easily shed this label if they believe/practice to a lesser degree, thereby raising the average religious commitment of still-identifying Catholics in this cohort (Clements and Bullivant 2022b). This has also been demonstrated amongst Evangelicals in Northern Ireland, where 70% of practising Christians who are 18-24 identify as evangelical, in comparison to 46% of those aged 65+ (Evangelical Alliance 2024). In addition, a ‘creative minority’ effect exists whereby being significantly outnumbered increases group cohesion, resulting here in mutually furthering each other’s beliefs and producing new creative ways of meeting and doing so (Clements and Bullivant 2022b). This is likely to occur also in Ireland as cultural Catholicism decreases throughout the generations, and as more movements amongst youth and young adults are created and promoted.”
In other words, the researchers suggest the future may be a smaller but more intensely Catholic group of young people. However, it doesn’t augur well for the Irish educational system to learn that many doubted the existence of Jesus, given that all historians of repute agree on his historicity, regardless of whether or not they themselves are Christians.
On gender differences in faith, the researchers state: “Generally, women are more religious than men (cf. Trzebiatowska and Bruce 2012). However, in the Republic of Ireland, women and men are similarly religious. This has been suggested to result from a perception that the Church has treated women in Ireland poorly (Ganiel 2022) as 74% of Irish Catholic women were found to believe that the Church did not treat them with ‘a lot of respect’, compared to just 6% of Protestant women in the Republic (Ganiel 2016). However, whether this explains female relative irreligiosity requires further investigation. Another study found young women in Northern Ireland were more likely to be religious but also to disagree with Church teaching than men (Ganiel 2022). This is of particular interest given the historical role of Irish women regarding the propagation of faith and vocations within the family, as shown (Garvin 2004; Inglis 1998). In Northern Ireland, a study on ‘practising Christians’ found 52% of these to be female and 47% male (Evangelical Alliance 2024).”
The above is but a snapshot of a very extensive report, which undoubtedly will generate a great deal of debate.
Declan McSweeney lives in England but is originally from Offaly. He worked for over 18 years for the now-closed Offaly Express and has also worked as a journalist in the UK.
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