Country

Ireland

Also Known As Irish

Europe

Ireland's Roman Catholic identity, cemented over centuries and long entangled with national identity itself, has loosened markedly in recent decades following major clerical abuse scandals, alongside a Protestant minority historically concentrated in Ulster. Pre-Christian Ireland's druidic and other Celtic religious practices survive mainly through later, often Christian mediated, written sources, since druidic tradition itself was oral, and early Irish Christianity developed a distinctive monastic culture that produced illuminated manuscripts including the Book of Kells. Sites including Newgrange, older than Stonehenge, attest to ceremonial activity in Ireland millennia before Christianity's arrival, though the specific beliefs behind them remain unknown and are treated as an open question by scholars. The partition of Ireland has left sectarian Protestant-Catholic division a live political fact in Northern Ireland specifically, distinct from the Republic's own religious history.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

Disestablished 3

The Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871, ending the state church; Ireland's constitution is secular, though the great majority of primary schools remain under Catholic patronage, a legacy structure now debated given declining religious practice.

State Funding Mechanism

Ireland funds no church or clergy salary from the state budget, and none by law. Article 44.2.2 of the Constitution provides that the State guarantees not to endow any religion, a provision that has been read to bar the State from directly funding a church as such. Parish and clergy costs are met through parishioners' own voluntary offerings and collections rather than any state mechanism. The one point of contact between state money and specifically religious activity is that the State pays the salaries of teachers in denominational national schools who also provide religious instruction as part of the ordinary school day, a long-standing arrangement whose compatibility with Article 44.2.2 remains debated in Irish legal and academic commentary rather than settled by it. 4

Apostasy or Blasphemy Law

Ireland has no live blasphemy law, removed in two steps. Article 40.6.1 of the Constitution had provided that "the publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law"; a referendum on 26 October 2018 passed by 64.85 percent to delete the word "blasphemous" from that clause. The statutory offense it had authorized, created by sections 36 and 37 of the Defamation Act 2009 with a maximum fine of 25,000 euro, was then repealed by the Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Act 2019, which also struck residual blasphemy references from the Censorship of Films Acts; the 2019 Act was enacted on 17 January 2020. Ireland has no apostasy law. The 2009 statutory offense, though on the books for nearly a decade, was never once prosecuted; the government cited that fact, alongside the wish that Ireland no longer be invoked internationally as a precedent for blasphemy law, as reasons for the repeal rather than for leaving the provision dormant. 5

Registration or Recognition Regime

No law requires a religious group to register, and the state has no mechanism for formally recognizing one as such; what registration exists runs through the general charities framework, since the advancement of religion is itself a recognized charitable purpose under the law, so a religious group that wants tax exemption or wants to raise funds publicly registers with the Charities Regulator on the same terms as any other charity rather than under any religion specific process. 6

Concordat Basis

Ireland has no concordat with the Holy See, though the two have exchanged diplomatic relations since 1929, among the longest-standing in Europe. The domestic instrument is Article 44.2.2 of the Constitution, which states that the state shall not endow any religion, a provision that survived the Fifth Amendment of 1972, when the electorate removed Article 44.1.2's recognition of the Catholic Church's "special position" and Article 44.1.3's naming of other churches, leaving formal religious equality in place of any established church. 4

Geography

Latitude

53.4 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

8.2 degrees west 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Status

Legal Status

No established church since 1871 (Church of Ireland disestablished); the state is constitutionally secular but the great majority of primary schools remain under Catholic patronage, a legacy structure now debated given declining religious practice. 3

Demographics

Religious Composition

About 70% Catholic per the most recent national census, down from over 90% in past decades; religiously unaffiliated now around 12-14% and the fastest-growing category; small Protestant, Muslim and Orthodox minorities (Ireland national census; Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1

Government

Capital

Dublin 2

Government Type

parliamentary republic 2

Sovereignty Status

Sovereign UN member state 2

Established Year

1921 2

6 December 1921 (from the UK); 6 December 1922 (Irish Free State established); 18 April 1949 (Republic of Ireland Act enabled)

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in Ireland

Ireland remains majority Catholic, though the share identifying as Catholic has fallen substantially from over 90 percent in past decades to roughly 70 percent in the most recent census, with religiously unaffiliated residents now the fastest-growing category at around 12 to 14 percent, alongside small Protestant, Muslim and Orthodox Christian minorities, per Ireland's national census and estimates reflected in Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020. Christianity reached Ireland substantially through the mission traditionally associated with St Patrick in the fifth century, building on an earlier Gaelic pagan religious culture centered on druids and seasonal festivals such as Samhain and Bealtaine, and Irish monasticism became renowned across early medieval Europe for preserving classical and Christian learning through the so-called Dark Ages, producing illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells.

English and later British rule from the sixteenth century imposed Protestant establishment through the Church of Ireland while the Catholic majority faced severe legal disabilities under the Penal Laws, repealed only gradually from the late eighteenth century through Catholic Emancipation in 1829, a long history of religious discrimination that fed directly into Irish nationalism and the eventual partition of the island in 1921.

The Catholic Church's Fall from Institutional Power

The Catholic Church held extraordinary social and institutional power in independent Ireland after 1922, running the great majority of schools and hospitals and shaping laws on divorce, contraception and censorship well into the late twentieth century, a dominance progressively eroded by decades of revelations concerning clerical sexual abuse and its systemic cover-up, most notably documented in state inquiries including the 2009 Ryan and Murphy reports, alongside the discovery of unmarked graves at former Catholic-run mother and baby homes for unmarried mothers, whose 2021 state inquiry found thousands of infant deaths inadequately recorded. These revelations coincided with rapid social liberalization: Ireland legalized divorce only in a narrowly passed 1995 referendum, then became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2015 and voted by a large majority in 2018 to repeal its constitutional abortion ban, both results widely read as a decisive popular break from Catholic Church authority over Irish law and social life. Mass attendance, once near-universal, has fallen sharply, particularly in urban areas, even as the great majority of Irish schools remain formally under Catholic patronage, a legacy structure increasingly at odds with the country's declining religious practice.

Ireland

1 entry

Giving Obligation Enforceability

Founded Era

Activity

Fellowship of Isis

Ireland

Connections

Associated With

30th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women in the Church of Ireland (Diocese of Connor)

This source names Ireland directly: "The Church of Ireland Diocese of Connor's own article marking the 30th anniversary of women's ordination, read directly for this pass, which states that the General Synod approved the ordination of..."

Source 30th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women in the Church of Ireland (Diocese of Connor)

A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany

This source names Ireland directly: "Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany is a comprehensive scholarly gazetteer cataloging known stone circles across the region, written by one of the most prolific specialist..."

Source A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and BrittanyAubrey Burl

Charles the Second: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland

This source names Ireland directly: "Second, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published by Oxford University Press in 1989, was the first full scholarly biography treating Charles II's reign across all three kingdoms together..."

Source Charles the Second: King of England, Scotland, and IrelandRonald Hutton

Christian Aid

This source names Ireland directly: "sponsoring churches across Britain and Ireland, founded in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War when the churches of Britain and Ireland united to support European refugees, with its..."

Source Christian Aid: Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25Christian Aid; audited by HaysMac LLP

Christianity

About 70% Catholic per the most recent national census, down from over 90% in past decades.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Cloyne Report

Source Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of CloyneCommission of Investigation (Judge Yvonne Murphy, chair)

Cogitosus, Life of Saint Brigit

This source names Ireland directly: "of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1987, is the earliest surviving hagiography of the saint."

Source Cogitosus, Life of Saint BrigitCogitosus (trans. Sean Connolly)

Commission of Investigation Into Mother and Baby Homes

Early Christian Ireland

This source names Ireland directly: "Charles-Edwards's Early Christian Ireland, Cambridge University Press, 2000, is the standard modern academic history of Christianity's arrival and early establishment in Ireland."

Source Early Christian IrelandT.M. Charles-Edwards

Ferns Report

Source The Ferns ReportThe Ferns Inquiry

Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland)

This source names Ireland directly: "traditional mythological history of Ireland's successive legendary settlements, prepared by an Irish Texts Society scholar working directly from the surviving manuscripts."

Source Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland)R. A. Stewart Macalister (ed. and trans.)

Legal Deposit, Cambridge University Library

This source names Ireland directly: "published in the United Kingdom and Ireland, a status with roots in English law reaching back to 1662 and now extended to digital as well as print publication."

Source Legal Deposit, Cambridge University LibraryCambridge University Librarythe holders' own account

Malachy of Armagh

This source names Ireland directly: "was born around 1094 in Armagh, Ireland, and became Archbishop of Armagh, reforming Irish church practice along Roman lines during a turbulent period for the see."

Source An Historical and Critical Account of the So-Called Prophecy of St. Malachy Regarding the Succession of PopesM. J. O'Brien

McAleese Report

More Than 70 Detained in Crackdown on Churches in Eastern China

This source names Ireland directly: "2025 report from Open Doors UK and Ireland describing a two month operation by Chinese authorities against unregistered Protestant house church groups in eastern China, in which more than 70 people..."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition

Murphy Report

Source Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin (the Murphy Report)Commission of Investigation (Judge Yvonne Murphy, chair)

Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of Cloyne

This source names Ireland directly: "from the Vatican's representative in Ireland described the Irish bishops' own child protection guidelines as non-binding, undermining compliance with them."

Source Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of CloyneCommission of Investigation (Judge Yvonne Murphy, chair)

Ryan Report

Source Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report)Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Justice Sean Ryan, chair)

Sheela-na-gigs: Unravelling an Enigma

This source names Ireland directly: "churches and castles primarily across Ireland and Britain, surveying and weighing the competing explanations that have been proposed, a warning against evil, a fertility figure, a survival of..."

Source Sheela-na-gigs: Unravelling an EnigmaBarbara Freitag

Tara: An Archaeological Survey

This source names Ireland directly: "survey of the Hill of Tara in Ireland, the ceremonial complex traditionally associated with the high kingship, based on Newman's own fieldwork."

Source Tara: An Archaeological SurveyConor Newman

The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?

This source names Ireland directly: "the ancient inhabitants of Britain and Ireland used of themselves."

Source The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?Simon James

The Book of Durrow

This source names Ireland directly: "include the monastery of Durrow in Ireland, Iona off the Scottish coast, and a Northumbrian house such as Lindisfarne, and the manuscript itself names neither scribe nor place."

Source The Book of Durrow: A Medieval Masterpiece at Trinity College DublinBernard Meehan

The Ferns Report

This source names Ireland directly: "report of an inquiry the Government of Ireland set up in 2003 to identify complaints and allegations made against clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Ferns before April 2002, and to examine how both..."

Source The Ferns ReportThe Ferns Inquiry

The History and Topography of Ireland

This source names Ireland directly: "an Anglo-Norman cleric's account of Ireland's landscape, wonders and people written shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion he supported."

Source The History and Topography of IrelandGerald of Wales (trans. John J. O'Meara)

The Preamble and Declaration of the Church of Ireland

This source names Ireland directly: "and Declaration of the Church of Ireland is a primary constitutional document, the actual founding text the Church of Ireland's General Convention adopted in 1870 upon disestablishment from the..."

Source The Preamble and Declaration of the Church of IrelandThe General Convention of the Church of Irelandthe holders' own account

The Troubles

The republican and nationalist side of the conflict sought Northern Ireland's unification with the Republic of Ireland, which the Good Friday Agreement's cross-border institutions later gave partial, consultative form to.

Source John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary, Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images (1995)John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary

The Tuatha De Danann

This source names Ireland directly: "of Irish mythology, said to have ruled Ireland before the coming of the Gaels and to have withdrawn into the sidhe, the fairy mounds, after their defeat."

Source A Dictionary of Celtic MythologyJames MacKillop

UNESCO Inscribes the Moravian Church Settlements on the World Heritage List

This source names Ireland directly: "in 1722; and Gracehill in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, founded in 1759, to Christiansfeld in Denmark, founded in 1773 and already inscribed on its own in 2015."

Source Moravian Church Settlements (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)