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Changing religions in the Republic of Ireland, 1991-2002
Desmond A. Gillmor
Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin
ABSTRACT
In contrast with Northern Ireland, there has been little study by geographers of
religion in the Republic of Ireland. The consistent trend in religions, as record-
ed at the Census of Population, had involved an increasingly very high level of
Roman Catholic affiliation and a continuous decline in the share of minority
denominations. The 1991-2002 intercensal period marked a striking reversal of
this trend, with substantial expansion and diversification of the minority reli-
gions sector. The nature and spatial patterns of these changes are considered.
Attention is given to factors that might have had an influence on them, com-
prising the census questions and answers, migration, natural demographic
change and age structure, households of mixed religions and religious mobility.
The changing religious structure of its population is a part of what might be con-
sidered to be a shift towards a multicultural society in the Republic of Ireland.
Key index words: Religion, population, migration, census, Republic of Ireland.
Introduction
Study of contemporary religion in Ireland by geographers has focused largely on
Northern Ireland. The extent of research there means that reference can be made to only a
small sample of the publications. Some of the earliest geographical work on religion was by
Jones (1960) and there was later mapping of distributions by Compton (1978). Best known
internationally as a classic work on territoriality was that by Boal (1969) and religious
segregation was a theme of continuing interest (Boal and Douglas, 1982). The relative
numbers of Catholics and Protestants in the Northern Irish population have been a matter for
debate (Compton, 1985) and Doherty (1993) outlined trends in religions. Increasingly it has
been recognised that the traditional twofold ethnic distinction is over-simplistic (Doherty and
Poole, 2002). Extending investigation into the area of the opinions of churchgoers on a
variety of issues, a major study was undertaken by Boal, Keane and Livingstone (1997).
Obviously religion was taken into consideration by geographers in studies of the
evolution of society in Ireland as a whole and in the Republic of Ireland but even in historical
geography there have been comparatively few specific investigations of religion and its
effects (Whelan, 1983, 1988). Maps of contemporary religion in Ireland were included in
general atlases (Irish National Committee for Geography, 1979; Horner et al., 1987). The
main discussion of distributions and trends was by Freeman (1969) and there has been
surprisingly little reference to contemporary religion in other general geography texts.
Pilgrimages, being distinctly geographical phenomena, were studied by Nolan (1983) and
McGrath (1989). Pringle (1985, 1990) included reference to the Republic of Ireland in
considering the influence of religion on politics and relationships between Catholics and Protestants.
Doherty and Pringle (1995) explored church attendance by students. In Dublin, the Jewish
Irish Geography, Volume 39(2), 2006, 111-128.
112 Gillmor
community was investigated by Waterman (1981, 1983) and places of worship by Horner
(2004). The role of the Catholic Church in community development in Cork was considered
by O’Connor and Joyce (2005). A general paper on contemporary religion in the Republic of
Ireland has never been published in Irish Geography.
Given the significance of religion in Irish life, it is surprising that it has received so little
attention by geographers in the context of the Republic of Ireland. The lack of attention as
compared with Northern Ireland must relate to the relative absence of political, conflict and
segregation dimensions but perhaps the predominance of one religion may have contributed
to making investigation seem potentially less interesting. Recent changes in this situation
have prompted this paper. The changes have been proportionately much greater in the
minority religions sector than in the Roman Catholic population and so the focus is on that
sector and on comparisons with the Catholic population.
The measurement of changes in religion discussed in this paper is based on published and
unpublished data derived from the 1991 and 2002 population censuses (Central Statistics
Office, 1995, 2003, 2004, together with unpublished statistics, special tabulations and
personal communications). These record the religious affiliations that respondents designated
for themselves and others in their households when completing the census forms. While they
represent important personal statements, the data cannot be taken as specifying religious
belief, attitude or practice. These aspects are beyond the scope of this paper and they have
been investigated by, for example, Hornsby-Smith and Whelan (1994), Doherty and Pringle
(1995), MacGreil (1996), Greeley (1999), Cassidy (2002) and Fahy et al. (2005). Such
studies show that the decline in the practice of religion has been greater than in religious
belief and, as reflected in church attendance, it has escalated in recent years.
Numerical change
The religious structure of the Republic of Ireland had been characterised by strong
consistency over time, with change involving principally substantial decline in minority
denominations and the resultant increasing predominance of adherence to the Roman
Catholic Church. The population recorded as being of religions other than Catholic declined
from 327,179 in 1911 to 220,723 in 1926 and 147,747 in 1991; the percentages of the total
population at these dates being 10.4, 7.4 and 4.2 respectively. The decline of the minority
was discussed in publications by McDermott and Webb (1938), Viney (1965), White (1975)
and Bowen (1983).
This downward trend in the minority religions prompted the commissioning of a paper
on the factors involved in the decline by the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in 1995
(Sexton and O’Leary, 1996) and led some to question the future of the Protestant population:
“It may be that Protestants in the South have fallen below the threshold of a sustainable
community in the long term” (Tanner, 2001:421) and “That future (of Protestants and their
religion) is in question, however, partly because of the sheer demographic facts posed by
Catholics constituting the overwhelming majority” (Mennell, 2002:15).
While there were some earlier indications of change, the 1991-2002 intercensal period
marked a striking reversal of the preceding trend in the minority religions sector, with a
growth of 60.6 percent in only eleven years. The number recorded in 2002 was 237,239; 6.1
percent of the total population. The increasing religious diversification and the variation by
individual religion are demonstrated by the details of change in Table 1, in which the religions
are listed according to their numbers of adherents in 2002 (Central Statistics Office, 2003).
This paper is concerned with those people for whom a religion was indicated in the census;
those who were stated to have no religion or for whom the religion question was not answered
were considered in the context of a publication on secularisation (Gillmor, 2006). There is
information on these and other religions in the Irish context in Brierley and Myers (1994),
Ryan (1996), Richardson (1998), Carroll (1999), Irish Council of Churches (2006) and Skuce
(2006).
Table 1: Changes in religious affiliation in the Republic of Ireland, 1991-2002.
_____________________________________________________
Religion Number Number Change in Percentage
in 1991 in 2002 number change
_________________________________________________________________________________
Roman Catholic 3,228,327 3,462,606 234,279 7.3
Church of Ireland 89,187 115,611 26,424 29.6
Christian (unspecified) 16,329 21,403 5,074 31.1
Presbyterian 13,199 20,582 7,383 55.9
Islamic (Muslim) 3,875 19,147 15,272 394.1
Orthodox 358 10,437 10,079 2,815.4
Methodist 5,037 10,033 4,996 99.2
Jehovah’s Witness 3,393 4,430 1,037 30.6
Buddhist 986 3,894 2,908 294.9
Evangelical 819 3,780 2,961 361.5
Apostolic or Pentecostal 285 3,152 2,867 1,006.0
Hindu 953 3,099 2,146 225.2
Lutheran 1,010 3,068 2,058 203.8
Baptist 1,156 2,265 1,109 95.9
Jewish 1,581 1,790 209 13.2
Pantheist 202 1,106 904 447.5
Agnostic 823 1,028 205 24.9
Society of Friends (Quaker) 749 859 110 14.7
Latter Day Saints (Mormon) 853 833 -20 -2.3
Lapsed Roman Catholic 3,749 590 -3,159 -84.3
Atheist 320 500 180 56.2
Baha’i 430 490 60 14.0
Brethren 256 222 -34 -13.3
Other stated religions 2,197 8,920 6,723 306.0
No religion 66,270 138,264 71,994 108.6
Religion not stated 83,375 79,094 -4,281 -5.1
Total population 3,525,719 3,917,203 391,484 11.1
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note: Figures of change are increases except for the four categories preceded by minus signs.
The growth of 234,279 in the number of those recorded as Roman Catholic exceeded the
157,205 increase in the remainder of the population but, because the rate of growth was less
than the 11.1 increase in the total population, the Catholic share declined from 91.6 percent
to 88.4 percent. The largest absolute increase in a religious denomination other than Catholic
was 26,424 in the Church of Ireland (Anglican) but its rate of growth was less than in the
other two main Protestant denominations; Presbyterian and Methodist. A notable feature was
the growth of the evangelical sector, comprising Pentecostal, Evangelical, Baptist and some
of the unspecified Christians. Evangelical Alliance Ireland (2006) has identified over four
hundred evangelical places of worship in the Republic of Ireland, ranging from some
churches in the traditional Protestant denominations to residential houses. While there are
historic roots, the growth of evangelical worship in Ireland is part of a modern international
trend (Richardson and Reidy, 1976-77; Dunlop, 2004).
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 113
114 Gillmor
Most striking in being a relatively new feature of the Irish religious landscape and in the
rapidity of their growth are Orthodox religions and religions other than Christian religions
(henceforth referred to for convenience as non-Christian religions). With respect to their rates
of increase, however, it must be borne in mind that they have expanded from very small bases.
Most dramatic was the Orthodox growth, from only 358 in 1991 to 10,437 in 2002. The
identifiable non-Christian religions increased by 238.6 percent, so that by 2002 they
numbered 31,034 and comprised 0.8 percent of the population. Almost two-thirds of the non-
Christian religions population were Muslims and this has been part of a more general
European expansion of this religion (Davie, 2000). A feature of the Muslim and Hindu
populations is that combined they were 62 percent male. The increase in the Jewish
community was small, but nonetheless significant in the context of its major decline over
preceding decades. With the growth of other religions, the proportion of the Protestant
denominations in the minority religions sector that is the focus of this paper declined; the
broadly Protestant population increased by 35.5 percent in 1991-2002, but its share of the
minority religions sector declined from 83.8 to 70.7 percent.
Spatial change
Prior to considering the spatial pattern of change, it is important to identify the
distribution of the minority religions sector. This is done on a county basis for 2002 in Figure
1a. The distribution is principally an outcome of historic evolution, being related initially to
British settlement and influence. It still reflects the planting of British settlers, especially in
the Ulster counties but also in parts of the midlands and south, together with the effect of
British influence in and around Dublin, though some change has occurred over time. The
largest concentration of the minority religions sector in 2002 was in Dublin and Wicklow,
with moderate densities extending towards Laois. Counties Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare
together accounted for 44 percent of the minority religions population in the Republic of
Ireland. They exceeded 10 percent of the total population in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and
Wicklow. Most concentrated were the Orthodox and Islamic religions, with over half of their
people resident in County Dublin. The second main area of minority religions was the three
counties of Ulster, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, where one-tenth of the state’s minority
comprised one-tenth of the local population. While exceeded by the Church of Ireland except
in Monaghan, almost half of the Presbyterians in the state were in Ulster. The minority
religion proportion was moderate in Sligo, but tended to be lowest elsewhere in the West with
extensions of low values towards Louth and Waterford.
The spatial pattern of the rate of increase in the minority religions in 1991-2002 tended
towards being a mirror image of the distribution of the share of that sector in the population
(Figs 1a and 1b). The highest rates of increase tended to occur in areas where there are
relatively few people of minority religions and so growth was from small bases. This applied
to much of the West, with extensions towards Louth and Waterford. The lowest rates of
increase were in the three Ulster counties, where the proportions of minority religions in the
populations are high; with 10.5 percent of the state’s minority religion sector in 2002, they
had accounted for only 2.4 percent of the growth from 1991-2002. Similarly growth was
relatively low in Wicklow with its substantial minority sector and westwards from there to
North Tipperary. The rate of increase in Dublin was moderate but, with its large population,
it accounted for 35.3 percent of the total growth of minority religions in the state. Within
Dublin, growth was markedly lowest in both absolute and relative terms in Dun Laoghaire-
Rathdown. Overall there was great variation in the rates of increase in the minority religions
in the Republic of Ireland in 1991-2002 on even a county basis, ranging from 1.8 percent in
Monaghan to 154.9 percent in Roscommon.
Figure 1: Minority religions: (a) distribution, 2002; (b) increase, 1991-2002; (c) rate of increase
relative to the Roman Catholic population, 1991-2002; (d) contribution of the 1992-2002 increase to
the total population in 2002.
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 115
116 Gillmor
Two other dimensions of spatial change in the minority religions sector are shown in Figs
1c and 1d. The rates of change in the minority sector are compared in Fig 1c with those of
Catholics and thus with the bulk of the population, taking into account inter-county variations
in total population change. In all counties except Monaghan this difference was positive. The
pattern in Fig 1c resembles closely that in Fig 1b. The spatial pattern of growth in the minority
sector was not a function of the distribution of growth in the population as a whole. The
contribution that the growth in the minority sector made to this total population is shown in
Fig 1d and in a sense this is an indicator of the numerical impact of the growth on the cultural
structures of the counties.
A feature of the changing spatial pattern of religions in 1991-2002 was the extent to
which the minority sector became much more highly urbanised; that is concentrated in towns
with populations over 1,500. At 54.7 percent urban in 1991, it was below the 57.0 percent
level of the total population but by 2002 urbanisation of the minority sector had increased
substantially to 62.2 percent, above the total population level of 59.6 percent (Table 2). A
major factor in this shift was the huge growth in the non-Christian and Orthodox religions,
which are the most urbanised of the religions. The Muslim population had the highest
concentration tendency of all, being 92.4 percent urban in 2002. The most rural religions were
the Church of Ireland and, especially marked, the Presbyterian denomination. The latter had
been only 33.0 percent urban in 1991, largely due to the concentration of the Presbyterian
population in the Border Region, where the level of urbanisation was a mere 10.5 percent.
During 1991-2002, however, the rate of urbanisation of Presbyterians was greater than that of
any other religion, rising to 47.9 percent. This was largely attributable to the diminishing
share of the Border Region in the total Presbyterian population of the state with much more
rapid growth elsewhere, falling from 66.6 percent in 1991 to 46.6 percent by 2002. As there
is considerable variation in the levels of urbanisation of the different religions, this can have
a bearing on the changing religious structure of the Republic of Ireland associated with the
differing rates of urban and rural population change.
Table 2: Levels of urbanisation of religions, 1991 and 2002.
__________________________________________________________________________
Religion % urban 1991 % urban 2002 Total number 2002
Roman Catholic 56.7 58.5 3,462,606
Minority religions 54.7 62.2 237,239
Church of Ireland 48.5 52.0 115,611
Presbyterian 33.0 47.9 20,582
Methodist 56.5 65.9 10,033
Orthodox 84.4 88.8 10,437
Other Christian religions 70.6 71.0 21,403
Islam 92.6 92.4 19,147
Other stated religions 75.8 74.7 40,026
_____________________________________________________
The census question and responses
Measurement of change could be affected potentially by any alteration in the nature of a
census question and the ways in which people responded to it. This seems all the more
possible in relation to the personal matter of religion, which may not always be clearly definable.
There was a fundamental difference in the formulation of the question relating to religion on
the census forms in 1991 and 2002. In 1991 the question was of an open-ended type with
respondents being asked to state the particular denomination and if they had no religion they
were to write “none”, with no further instructions. In 2002 respondents to the question “What
is your religion?” were asked to tick one of the specified alternatives ‘Roman Catholic’,
‘Church of Ireland’, ‘Presbyterian’, ‘Methodist’, ‘Islam’, ‘Other, write in your religion’ and
‘No religion’. The change was made to facilitate scanning of the census forms and processing
of the data and also it simplified answering of the question by the vast majority of respondents
who could tick boxes rather than having to write the names of religions.
The Central Statistics Office (2003) was of the opinion that this questionnaire effect was
likely to have distorted somewhat the comparison between the responses written by
respondents themselves in the 1991 Census and the tick box categories used in 2002 but that
this effect was not quantifiable. It was felt that this might have accounted in part for the
growth in the numbers of people recorded as Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist.
No reference was made to what categories of religion these extra numbers might have come
from or to such a potential effect on the other religions specified on the form in 2002, that is
Roman Catholic and Islam.
It is possible only to surmise about the potential effects of the changes in the question
and answering on some of the census categories of religion. The fact that there were declines
in the numbers of ‘Lapsed Roman Catholics’ and of those not stating a religion while there
was a major increase in those indicating that they had no religion suggests that some people
in the former categories in 1991 may have been prepared to tick the ‘No religion’ or another
religion in 2002. This could have been affected also by changing attitudes and greater
confidence. It seems possible that child abuse and other problems within the Catholic Church
(Inglis, 1998) may have deterred some people from designating themselves as ‘Roman
Catholic’ on the census form in 2002.
The categorisation of responses in the published census results may affect interpretation
of them. Apart from one table, ‘Atheists’, ‘Agnostics’ and ‘Lapsed Roman Catholics’ are
included in the ‘Other stated religions’ category, and so form part of the minority religions
sector of this paper, whereas it could be argued that they would belong more appropriately to
‘No religion’. Responses stating only ‘Protestant’ are combined with Church of Ireland in the
census results to facilitate comparison with previous censuses. In the 1991 report the 6,347
‘Protestants’ had been identified as a subsector within the 89,187 Church of Ireland
population but Dr Caird, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, argued that this
contributed to underestimation of the Church of Ireland numbers (Acheson, 2002). The
number specifying ‘Protestant’ was not identified in the 2002 report but it was 3,104. Even if
the effect is small, the likelihood that inclusion of these respondents involves
misrepresentation had increased in 2002 when ‘Church of Ireland’ was a specified option on
the census form, so those who, instead of ticking that category, wrote ‘Protestant’ seem even
less likely than previously to have meant Church of Ireland. That designation seems more
likely to indicate a small denomination or no specific affiliation within the Protestant sector.
In the Northern Ireland context, Doherty (1991) felt that people who use a designation such
as ‘Protestant’ do not participate in organised religion. The inclusion of respondents who
specify Protestant must inflate somewhat the Church of Ireland population. If none of them
had been Church of Ireland, the halving of their number between 1991 and 2002 indicates that
the percentage increase in Church of Ireland affiliation would have been 35.8 percent rather
than the 29.6 percent recorded in the census report on the assumption that all were Church of
Ireland.
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 117
118 Gillmor
In querying the census statistics, Archbishop Caird had expressed the view that many
who worshipped in the Church of Ireland, particularly in inter-church marriages, preferred not
to be specific about their denomination (Acheson, 2002). This raises the fact that there must
be uncertainty as to how some people respond to the census question, all the more so as
religious practice declines, boundaries between some religions become less rigid and there is
greater flexibility in society. Nonetheless the census responses provide by far the most
complete record of religious affiliation in the Republic of Ireland.
Migration
The level of emigration of the minority religions sector relative to the population as a
whole has varied over time, but was generally higher. The extent of emigration and its
significance relative to natural change components were investigated by Keane (1970), Walsh
(1970, 1975), Kennedy (1973), Ó Gráda and Walsh (1995) and Sexton and O’Leary (1996).
By far the highest level of emigration was in the 1911-1926 intercensal period, when the
withdrawal of British security forces on Independence accounted for about one-quarter of the
fall by 32.5 percent. Considerations for others included security concerns and feelings about
the changed political, socio-economic and cultural environments with the transition from
their former ‘insider’ status to being ‘outsiders’, in the terminology applied by Mennell et al.
(2000). Decisions to emigrate then and subsequently may have been influenced by the
attitudes, perceptions and experiences of Protestants discussed by authors such as Ó Glaisne
(1991), Griffin (1993), Bowen (1995), Brown (1996), Coakley (1998), Murphy and Adair
(2002), LOCUS Management and Walsh (2005) and Ruddock (2006). These influences
lessened from the 1960s with changes in Irish society and greater integration of the small
minority into it.
With the major developments in the Irish economy, emigration was replaced by
immigration as a factor in the religious composition of the population. The census data on
immigration, and hence the term immigrants used in this paper, relate to people who became
resident in the Republic of Ireland between 1991 and 2002. The Central Statistics Office
(2003) expressed the view that, with almost 27,000 in total of these immigrants indicating that
they were either Church of Ireland, Presbyterian or Methodist, immigration was the principal
reason for the growth of 38,800 in these three religions combined in 1991-2002.
That the situation is more complex than such a simple comparison of the number of
immigrants of a particular religion with the increase in the number of adherents to that
religion is indicated by the fact that the 249,572 Catholic immigrants exceeded the growth of
234,279 in the Catholic population; the ratio of immigrants to population increase was higher
than for any other category of religion. If the above argument were to be followed, this might
be taken to suggest that immigration was most important for the Catholic population, which
would have declined by 15,293 in the absence of these immigrants. However influences such
as emigration and the role of returnees are migration factors that would have to be taken into
account in such comparisons in addition to other considerations. Immigration peaked in 2002,
at 66,900 of whom 27,000 were Irish, but even then there were 25,500 emigrants (Gilmartin,
2004).
That immigration in 1991-2002 has been an important factor in the changing religious
structure of the Republic of Ireland is indicated in Table 3. The numbers of immigrants and
their percentage religious composition are shown in the first two columns. The data in the
third column are of value in assessing the differential roles of immigration in the different
categories of religion. There the percentages of the different populations in 2002 comprised
of people who had come to reside in the Republic of Ireland since 1991 are given.
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 119
Table 3: Religions of immigrants, 1991-2002.
Religion Immigrant % of total Immigrants as %
numbers immigrants of that religion,
2002
Roman Catholic 249,5727 1.2 7.2
Minority religions 56,860 16.2 24.0
Church of Ireland 19,481 5.6 16.9
Presbyterian 4,457 1.3 21.7
Methodist 2,800 0.8 27.9
Orthodox 4,590 1.3 44.0
Other Christian religions 5,201 1.5 24.3
Islam 7,486 2.1 39.1
Other stated religion 12,845 3.7 32.1
__________________________________________________________________________
The two religions in which immigrants in 1991-2002 accounted for the highest
proportions of the 2002 populations were Orthodox at 44.0 percent and Islam at 39.1 percent;
two of the fastest growing religions. Immigrants also made substantial contributions to small
denominations, as indicated by their shares in the populations of the Other Christian religions
and Other stated religions categories. Amongst these is a considerable number of Black
Majority Churches, many of which were established by Nigerian immigrants. Evangelical
Alliance Ireland (2006) estimated that one-third of attendees at evangelical churches were
raised outside Ireland; in Pentecostal congregations over half. Of the main Protestant
denominations, Methodism was the one in which immigrants were most important, at 27.9
percent of the 2002 population, and it had the highest growth rate.
Immigrants comprised 7.2 percent of the Roman Catholic population in 2002,
significantly lower than in any other religion. Of the total 1991-2002 immigrants, 71.2
percent were Catholic but this was substantially lower than the 91.6 percent of the total
Republic of Ireland population that Catholics had comprised in 1991. Thus immigration
accounted in part for the decline in the proportion of Catholics in the Irish population while
contributing substantially to the increased shares of a number of the minority religions.
Of the population in 2002 usually resident in the Republic of Ireland, 7.1 percent were
of nationalities other than Irish, with nearly two-fifths of them from the United Kingdom. The
proportions of nationalities varied considerably by religion. The Orthodox population was
comprised largely of Eastern European nationalities, principally Romanian and Russian, and
only 12.7 percent were Irish. People of Irish nationality were 28.5 percent of those of Islamic
religion, with most others being of Pakistani, Nigerian and other African and Asian
nationalities and some Eastern European. More than one-half of the Other Christian and
Other stated religions were also foreign nationals, most prominent being UK and Nigerian
nationalities in both categories, with Indian, other Asian and German nationalities in Other
stated religions. Amongst the main Protestant denominations, the proportion of foreign
nationals was highest in the Methodist population, principally UK, South African and
Nigerian. The Roman Catholic population was 96.5 percent Irish and the largest numbers of
other nationalities were, in rank order: UK, USA, French, Filipino, Spanish, Italian, Nigerian,
German, Polish, Australian and Lithuanian.
120 Gillmor
The distributions of the minority religions immigrants and of their shares of the minority
religions populations are shown by county in Figure 2a. County Dublin was the major focus
of this immigration, accounting for 37.9 percent of the total and almost half of these were in
the administrative area of Dublin City. The greatest variety of immigrant churches is there and
the concentration would have been greater if there were not an official policy of dispersal of
asylum seekers, for refugees are a significant element in such churches although they
comprise only a small part of total immigration. County Cork had 10.6 percent of the minority
religions immigrants, followed by Galway, Kildare and Wicklow. The relative contribution to
the minority religions population was quite high in northern Leinster and the southwest of
Ireland but was greatest in western counties. Being more evenly spread than the pre-existing
minority population over much of the state, the share was highest in its areas of lowest
density. Conversely it was lowest, at just over one-tenth, in the three Ulster counties where
the Protestant population was highest. Although immigrants were proportionately most
significant in the west in contributing to the minority religions population there, the minority
sector was a smaller part of total immigrants in the western half of the state because returning
Irish and Catholic people accounted for a higher proportion of immigrants there than
elsewhere (Figure 2b). The proportion of minority religions amongst immigrants was
markedly highest in Dublin and Wicklow, at one-fifth of the total, followed by Louth. Despite
this eastward orientation, the overall spatial effect of immigration was to lessen the variation
in the distribution of the minority religions sector in the Irish population.
Figure 2: Minority religion immigrants, 2002: (a) distribution; (b) as a proportion of all immigrants.
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 121
Natural change and age structure
Investigation of natural change is rendered difficult by the absence of relevant statistics
on births, marriages and deaths by religion in the Republic of Ireland. Researchers used
circuitous methods involving various significant assumptions to provide estimates of
nuptiality, fertility, birth rates and death rates in their attempts to explain the decline of the
minority religions (Walsh, 1970, 1975; Kennedy, 1973; Sexton and O’Leary, 1996). These
demonstrated that, relative to the Catholic population, Protestants had lower marital fertility,
lower birth rates and higher death rates, much more than offsetting a somewhat higher
nuptiality rate. It was estimated that for each intercensal period there was substantial natural
increase of the Catholic population while there was a natural decrease of the ‘Other
denominations’ population, except in 1981-1991 when minority births exceeded deaths by a
small margin (Sexton and O’Leary, 1996). The unfavourable demographic performance of the
Protestant population was in part a result of its older age structure, which in turn had been
influenced by emigration.
Calculation of the types of estimates made for earlier periods has been rendered more
difficult and much less justifiable for 1991-2002 by developments such as the large-scale
immigration, increase to one-third in the proportion of births outside marriage, increased
numbers of interdenominational marriages and greater diversity in the minority religions
sector. Nonetheless some surrogate data can be of benefit in providing indicators.
While being a poor substitute for accurate fertility rates, the number of children aged 0-
9 years at a census can be related to the number of women aged 20 to 50 years. Although this
cannot allow for immigration, those children under ten years old who entered the country
during the preceding intercensal period are likely to be with their mothers at the time of the
census. In 1991 the numbers of children aged 0-9 years per 1,000 women aged 20-50 years
were 854 for the Catholic population and 611 for the minority religions. In 2002 the values
were 617 and 520 respectively. This comparison suggests that both birth rates had fallen and
that the Catholic rate remained higher than that of the minority religions, but that the
differential had narrowed. Family size continued to be higher in Catholic family units in 2002
with 35.1 percent of children being in families of three or more children, as compared with
30.5 percent in families of the minority religions sector; as with birth rates, the difference in
family size has lessened considerably.
Given that differences in age structure were important in accounting for the relative
demographic performances of the Catholic and minority populations in the past, it is
instructive to compare the age structures for 1991 and 2002 (Table 4). In 2002 there continued
to be a higher proportion of the Catholic population aged less than 25 years but the
differentials had narrowed, from 9.9 percent to 4.4 percent, attributable mainly to the
diminished proportion of young Catholics. At the other end of the age range, the situation had
been reversed, with the minority religions sector now having a lower proportion aged over 60
as compared with the Catholic population.
122 Gillmor
Table 4: Age structure of Roman Catholic and minority religions populations, 1991 and 2002.
_____________________________________________________
Percentage age distribution
Religion ____________________________________________________________
0-14 15-24 25-44 45-64 65+
__________________________________________________________________________
1991
Roman Catholic 27.1 17.2 26.6 17.6 11.4
Minority religions 20.4 14.0 30.2 20.0 15.3
2002
Roman Catholic 21.3 16.4 29.3 21.4 11.6
Minority religions 18.3 14.5 35.5 21.3 10.4
Church of Ireland 17.6 13.2 29.5 24.8 14.9
Presbyterian 15.1 13.0 33.5 24.3 14.1
Methodist 14.8 12.5 34.8 23.9 13.9
Orthodox 17.3 19.6 56.3 6.2 0.7
Other Christian 22.3 15.4 37.6 20.5 4.2
Islam 28.0 16.4 47.7 6.9 1.0
Other religions 16.3 16.9 41.8 20.0 5.0
_____________________________________________________
Calculation of the age structures of individual religions within the minority sector in
2002 reveals that considerable variation had developed with the increasing diversification of
the sector (Table 4). While each one is different, the principal contrast is between the main
traditional Protestant denominations of Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist and the
other religions. While there were fewer youths in these Protestant denominations than in the
minority sector as a whole, the greatest difference was between their much higher proportions
of people in the older age groups than in those of the other minority religions categories. The
younger age structures of these religions reflect their higher proportions of immigrants. Most
characteristic of an immigrant population were Muslims, whose adult numbers peaked
strongly between 20 and 40 years, and Orthodox, peaking between 20 and 35. The proportion
of children in the Muslim community was particularly high and that of Other Christians also
exceeded the Catholic proportion; a distinguishing feature of these two and Orthodox children
was the proportionately large number of very young children.
The lessening differences between the Catholic and traditional minority denominations
in terms of the components of natural change and the age structures of their populations have
contributed to the changing religious composition of the Republic of Ireland but they alone
could not have been a major factor in the large extent of change. The demography of the
expanding other minority religions has been an important influence and it in particular bears
the imprint of immigration.
Households of mixed religions
The term ‘mixed’ marriage generally relates in the Irish context to unions in which one
spouse is Roman Catholic and the other belongs to another religion, traditionally a Protestant
denomination. For a marriage with a person other than Catholic to be recognised by the
Roman Catholic Church, under the Ne Temere decree of 1908, both spouses had to give a
written promise that the children would be brought up in the Catholic religion, as in wholly
Catholic marriages. Most commentators on the decline and perceptions of the Protestant
community identified mixed marriages as a major contributor to that decline. This related not
only to the direct demographic effect of the decree in that almost all children in
interdenominational marriages were reared as Catholics but also to the impact that it had on
the feelings of the minority in being perceived as a threat to its future and an incentive to have
some forms of social distance from the majority.
The regulations concerning inter-church marriages began to be relaxed from about 1970
but changes in practices occurred slowly and varied between dioceses and parishes (Hurley,
1975; Irish Episcopal Conference, 1983; Fulton, 1991). Now only the Catholic partner has to
promise to do what s/he can to have all the children of the marriage baptised and brought up
in the Catholic faith and that being within the unity of the marriage, the other partner being
made aware of the promise and obligation. This relaxation and the greatly increased numbers
of partnerships in which either this obligation is not undertaken or practised, the wedding is
conducted abroad, there is only a civil ceremony or there is no marriage would seem likely to
have combined in contributing to the changes in religious affiliations in 1991-2002 as
compared with earlier trends.
Sexton and O’Leary (1966) and O’Leary (1999) obtained access to unpublished 1981
and 1991 census data on people in religious intermarriages and their households but
acknowledged difficulties in using them. Nonetheless they were able to demonstrate an
increasing rate of mixed marriages and a trend towards a lessening proportion of children in
these households being Catholic. The unpublished statistics on which special tabulations were
run for the current research were not compiled on quite the same basis and the data used here
refer to all family units with children, and not just those households in which the parents were
married, as presenting a more complete picture of the contemporary situation. One difficulty
with both sets of data is that the inclusion of categories such as Lapsed Roman Catholics and
Agnostics with the minority religions in the census data tends to exaggerate slightly their
number and the incidence of inter-church marriages.
While not strictly comparable with the data for 1981-1991, the statistics used here
demonstrate for 1991-2002 a continuation of the trends towards more households of mixed
religion and a declining proportion of Catholic children within them. The number of family
units with children in which one parent was Catholic and the other belonged to another
religion increased from 9,665 in 1991 to 17,737 in 2002, and the number of children in those
households from 22,426 to 36,829. The proportion of those children who were Catholic
amongst those returned as having a religion declined from 78.6 percent in 1991 to 72.8
percent in 2002. This trend is indicated also by the children of younger mothers being less
likely to be Catholic, 61.2 percent for those aged under 25 years and rising continuously to
76.4 percent for mothers aged 65 and over. The children were more likely to be Catholic if
the mother was Catholic, 77.9 percent in 2002, as compared with 66.4 percent when the father
was Catholic.
Because of the predominance of Catholics in the population, mixed religion households
are obviously of much greater significance to the minority religions in terms of their impacts
on their total numbers. Such households expressed as a proportion of all family units
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 123
124 Gillmor
involving one or both parents of minority religion increased from 39.2 percent in 1991 to 47.8
percent in 2002, so that by then almost half of the households in which a minority religion
parent was involved were with a Catholic partner. In demographic terms, this increased
minority sector propensity to form mixed religion households more than offset the increasing
tendency for the children in those family units to be of minority religion, to the extent that of
all children in minority and mixed religion parentage units combined the proportion of
Catholic children increased from 32.4 percent in 1991 to 35.6 percent in 2002. Thus these
census data alone suggest that the changed attitudes and practices in relation to mixed
marriages did not contribute to the growth that occurred in the minority religion sector
relative to the Catholic population in 1991-2002. One complicating factor, however, is that in
these households with parents’ mixed religions specified, a religion was not indicated for 8.9
percent of the children in 2002. It seems possible that in some of these instances the
respondents, having made the promise to raise their children as Roman Catholics, preferred
not to specify on the census form that they were now of a different religion. Other difficulties
in interpreting the religions recorded for children by parents in mixed religion families are
that the baptism, education and worship of some children may not all be in the one
denomination and that in some instances the accuracy of the religions specified for children
may be questionable.
The spatial patterns of interdenominational marriages and of the religion of children of
mixed religion parenthood reflect the distribution of the minority religions sector (Figures 3a
and 3b). Where the minority religions population is small, members are more likely to be
married to a Roman Catholic spouse and the children in mixed religion households are more
likely to be Catholic. In the Republic of Ireland as a whole, 44.8 percent of married minority
Figure 3: (a) Rate of ‘mixed’ marriages in minority religions sector, 2002. (b) Proportion of Roman
Catholic children in family units of mixed religion, 2002.
people had a Catholic spouse in 2002. Where the minority religions were most widely
scattered, in much of the west and extending towards Waterford, there may have been a
greater feeling of isolation and the opportunities and likelihood of meeting a partner of one’s
own denomination were less, contributing to mixed marriage rates of over one-half. In
contrast, they were only about one-quarter in Cavan-Monaghan, and probably in east
Donegal, where the minority religions were strongest and proximity to the Border may have
been an influence by increasing the potential pool of marriage partners from the same
religion. The mixed marriage rate also tended to be lower in cities, especially in Dublin but
not in Cork. Much more difficult to evaluate as an influence than the numbers of co-
religionists are considerations such as tradition, attitudes towards mixed marriages, the
strength of religious feelings, community cohesiveness, the existence of social organisations
for young people and the role of clergy and other influential people. Some of such
considerations may also have a bearing on the religious upbringing of the children in mixed
religion households. The influence of complying with the predominant denomination may be
all the stronger where the minority is smallest and perhaps especially in rural society. In these
areas comparative inaccessibility to minority religion schools may be a consideration for
parents.
Religious mobility
The census data can give no direct indication of the changes of religion by people, except
perhaps with respect to the Lapsed Roman Catholic category. The combined “Not stated” and
“No religion” categories increased from 4.2 to 5.5 percent of the population in 1991-2002.
Sexton and O’Leary (1966) had argued on the basis of relative numbers that these people had
come largely from a Roman Catholic background but it is not possible to determine relative
rates of loss. They felt also that the expanded Christian category was comprised principally
of former Roman Catholics. It is very difficult to identify changes in religion and their effect
but, while flexibility and switching have increased, religious immobility remains strong.
One influence on religious mobility ended with the Ne Temere decree, under which the
Catholic person had to promise to try to convert the prospective spouse. O’Leary (1999)
found in a survey in Dublin in 1973 that half of all religious intermarriages were concealed
because of conversion, nearly always to Catholicism, but that by the 1990s this had become
uncommon. Roman Catholic Church records for the Dublin Diocese show that in recent years
there have been very few conversions. Transfers to Protestant denominations may not be
formalised and must be largely undocumented. Evangelical Alliance Ireland (2006) estimated
that 43 percent of those attending evangelical churches were from a Roman Catholic
background. The same origin accounts for some of the Irish Muslims, most commonly
women married to Muslim men. There is a perception in some of the other religions that there
are participants in their churches who had a Catholic background. It seems that, as compared
with the past, changes and flexibility of religion may have made some contribution to the
relative growth in minority religions recorded in the 2002 census.
Conclusion
The major expansion in the relative size of the minority religions sector of the Republic
of Ireland in 1991-2002 indicated by the Census of Population was in marked contrast with
previous trends. The influences that may have had a bearing on this changing religious
affiliation that were discussed were the nature of the census question and answering,
Changing Religions in the Republic of Ireland 125
126 Gillmor
migration, natural demographic change and age structure, households of mixed religion and
religious mobility. While immigration may be the most evident influence, it is not possible to
quantify the individual effects of these and other potential factors. This derives in part from
considerations such as the nature of religion and data limitations but also because of the
interrelationships of variables, including those between migration, age structure and birth
rates and in the ways in which the census question may be answered in households of mixed
religion. Much further research is needed to explore the changing religions scene in the
Republic of Ireland.
Continuation of the influences that have affected the trends in religious affiliation in the
period 1991-2002 suggest that further religious diversification will occur. Each of the
influences and the interrelationships between them, however, are subject to change and this
will affect the level of diversification and the length of time over which it occurs. Of
particular significance in affecting the religious composition of the population will be
migration, in terms of both its extent and the origins of the migrants. In this context, growth
since 2002 in the number of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe with the
enlargement of the European Union, and in particular in the size of the Polish community and
its contribution to the Roman Catholic Church, and also decline in the number of asylum
seekers, are having effects.
Census data may be an impersonal indicator of religion, but nonetheless the completing
of the religion question on the census form is an important statement of affiliation. However
there are many other aspects of the changes occurring in religion in Ireland. As indicated by
Stevens (2004), the numbers recorded in the census for certain religions tend to be higher than
corresponding church membership figures but even where such data exist they are generally
inaccurate. Although there are some exceptions, attendance at churches generally does not
accord with the growth indicated in the census and may sometimes be contrary to it. The
impact of change is most obvious in relation to immigrants of foreign nationality, leading to
new places of worship, conversion of some church buildings for use by new denominations
and special services in the churches of existing denominations, as described in Dublin by
Horner (2004). Where the immigrants join traditional congregations they may add a new
vitality, especially when these become what Martin (2006) has termed ‘multicultural
congregations’. The impact is felt also in schools, which should make new provisions
(Kiberd, 2001) as part of the adaptation needed in the whole educational system to the
changing religious composition of the population. As the Republic of Ireland moves further
from the largely monocultural society of the past towards a pluralist one (Feldman, 2003;
MacÉinrí, 2004), changing religious structure is one of the components to which state,
churches and people must adapt.
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