We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IRELAND’S POPULATION HIT close to 5.15 million as the number of people who identify as Roman Catholic saw a sharp decrease.
That’s according to the results of Census 2022, which was published by the Central Statistics Office this morning.
As of Sunday, 3 April, 2022, there were 5,149,139 people in the State.
That’s an 8% increase on the same figure in April 2016.
Census 2022 marked the first time in 171 years that the population of Ireland surpassed 5 million people.
The CSO notes that after a constant decline since 1851, Ireland’s population recorded its lowest level in 1961 when it stood at 2,818,341.
It then began to increase again and, in 2022, was 83% higher than 61 years previously.
Census 2022 also revealed that there has been a drop in the number of people who identify as Catholic.
In 2016, 79% of the population (3,696,644 people) identified themselves as Catholic.
In 2022, this figure dropped to 69% (3,515,861 people).
Mayo had the highest proportion of Catholics at 80% of the county’s population, followed closely by Tipperary, Offaly, Roscommon and Galway on 79%.
Dublin city recorded the lowest percentage of Catholics at 53%.
The ‘No religion’ category also increased from 451,941 people in 2016 to 736,210 people in 2022.
This category now makes up 14% of the population.
The Church of Ireland category showed little change but remained the second-largest religious category with 124,749 people.
Other categories with large numbers included Orthodox, with 100,165, and Islam, with 81,930.
According to the results, 132 people in Ireland said they were Scientologists, while 189 said they were Satanists. 1,800 people listed their religion as Jedi Knight.
The average age of the population also increased from 37.4 in 2016 to 38.8 in 2022. In 2011, the average age of the population was 36.1
Elsewhere, close to a third of all workers (747,961 people) worked from home for at least some part of their week, while close to 80% of households had a broadband internet connection, up from 71% in 2016.
The number of people aged 15 and over at work in April 2022 stood at 2.3 million, up 16% in six years.
There were 176,276 unemployed people who had lost or given up their previous job, a decline of 34% since 2016, while the overall unemployment rate stood at 8%, down from 13% in the previous census.
There was also a dip in the proportion of the population who rated their health as being good or very good, falling from 87% in 2016 to 83% last year.
52% of people aged 35 to 39 reported very good health last year, compared with 61% in 2016.
In contrast, there was a small increase in the proportion of people aged 75 and over reporting very good health in 2022 compared with the previous census.
8% of the population (407,342) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent or a lot, while 14% of the population (702,215) reported a long-lasting condition or difficulty to some extent or a little.
The results of the first question ever included on smoking in the census found that 13% of the population smoked either daily or occasionally last year.
Almost one million people (974,145) said they had given up smoking, while over 3.1 million people said they had never smoked.
Smoking rates were higher among men (15%) than women (11%), while people aged in their 20s and 30s smoke the most.
There’s also been a sharp increase in the number of people with dual Irish citizenship, which stood at 170,597 people in 2022 – a 63% increase from 2016.
Meanwhile, the number of people who say they can speak Irish increased by 6% between 2016 and 2022.
Of the 1,837,997 people who said they could speak Irish, 10% said they could speak Irish “very well”, while a further 32% could speak it “well”.
33% (623,961) of people who could speak Irish did so daily, both within and outside the education system.
However, only 71,968 of daily Irish speakers used Irish outside the education system and among those who could speak Irish, one in four (472,887) indicated that they never speak the language.
Between April 2016 and April 2022, increases in population ranged from 5% in Donegal, Kilkenny and Tipperary to 14.4% in Longford.
Population growth also tended to be stronger in the east of the country, with Meath growing by 13.2%, followed by Fingal (11.6%) and Kildare (11.4%).
Marital status also differed widely between counties.
Galway city and Dublin city had the highest proportion of single people, both at 55%.
Both cities also had the lowest proportion of married people, at 36% in Galway and 35% in Dublin.
At just over 7% each, Longford and Wexford had the highest percentage of divorced and separated people.
Leitrim and Mayo had the highest percentage of widowed people at 6%, and the CSO said this “reflected the age profile of these counties”.
While the number of people identifying as Catholic decreases in the Republic, there was an uptick in the proportion of Catholics in the North.
In Census 2021 for Northern Ireland, the census recorded more Catholics than Protestants for the first time in the region’s history.
45.7% identified themselves as Catholic, a 1.9% increase on the same figure 20 years previous.
Of this figure, 42.3% said Catholicism was their “current religion”.
Meanwhile, the percentage of people identifying as Protestant dropped from 53.1% in 2001 to 43.5% in 2021, with 37.4% stating that this was their current religion.
The non-religious grouping in the North in the 2021 Census was 17.4%, a figure which outnumbers all Protestant denominations.
The 2021 Census also recorded the North’s highest-ever population, at 1,903,175.
The numbers of people identifying as “Northern Irish only” (19.8%) and “British only” (31.9%) also dropped in the 2021 Census, while there was an increase in the numbers identifying as “Irish only” (29.1%).
Additional reporting from Jane Moore
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Lets be completely honest here, many people just tick the ‘catholic’ box because they were baptised as such. Ask the question ‘what religion do you currently practice’ and you’ll see a dramatic drop in that figure.
@John O’Reilly: Think you’re just following your own bias!!! It’s fine to tick a box in say in an election but different for a census!!!! By your logic 70% of the electorate are just ticking boxes without thinking about it too!!!
@John O’Reilly: i completely agree. My ex wife demands our children be raised Catholic. My son made his confirmation recently and he has never been inside a church outside his communion. She didn’t turn up for his rehearsal mass and he asked me to. I then discovered he knew none of the prayers. He broke down crying in the car so over a period of 2 months i thought him some of the prayers and took him to a church on some sundays. Im an atheist and i cant stand these cafeteria Catholics particularly when they want their children to grow up religious. Thankfully 2 of my children are atheists as well.
@Jerriko17: you just showed your own bias there with your presupposition. No one mentioned 70% except ypu. The loint been made is there is far less Catholics in Ireland than is suggested. People are ticking the Catholic box for many reasons but not because they are Catholics.
@John O’Reilly: : I tried explaining to my family that they don’t have to tick catholic if they are not, but they were afraid they would get fined for not filling it out correctly, and as they said, there are records of them being baptised as catholic.
@John O’Reilly: spot on .
@John O’Reilly: Fair point John, and i think theres a lot of truth in that. personally i only go to mass a handful of times a year ie. Rememberance masses, communions, christmas, weddings etc. But i identify as R.C. mass itself takes up only 30-45mins of a persons week, but how how you think, act and believe outside of that is, in my opinion, far more important, and for a lot of it on my part falls in line with christian beliefs.
@Jerriko17: Thinking about what, believing in sky fairies and man made rules in a book written by ignorant old men? I’d say, most would fill out a census honestly and I doubt they give a flying F about She God!
@Emmet Murphy: eating a man’s body and drinking his blood as a means to salvation is admittedly pretty strange, but the idea of an unmoved mover behind creation is no more implausible than the multiverse theory. Besides, dropping the religious outlook doesn’t necessarily make you a wiser person. If believing women can have pen!$es is the height of secular enlightenment, I’ll think I’ll stick with traditional religion.
@Paul Dowling: what does a woman having a willy have to do with being secular, let alone being the height of it? You’re stretching a bit.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: Well, as GK Chesterton put it: “When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.”
@Paul Dowling: the literal definition of atheism is without got. The only difference between me and a Christian is that out of the approx 4000 gods that have been worshiped I believe in one less. Your assertion that not believing in a god means that I would “believe in anything” is beyond daft.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: it’s beyond arrogant that you think that you can just jettison 2000 years of the theological and philosophical underpinnings of our civilisation (3000 if you count Jewish thought) without consequences. Go read Nietzsche’s parable of the madman in Zarathustra. It was pretty much written for smug atheists.
@Jerriko17: well that’s part of the problem, folk do that
@Paul Dowling: it’s beyond mental that you think that we should give any creedance to a religion based upon a virgin birth and a zombie. Not to mention all the genocide commited by and in the name of that God. And that’s before you even get to the talking animals and condoning slavery. I’m not even slightly interested in what some philosopher thinks. I can think for myself. That says it all really. You seem to be relying on others to tell you what to think, whether it be ancient philosophers or bronze ages shepards and fisherman.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: now that’s truly daft. Unless you’re a genius (and there are very few of those around), every single one of the concepts you use to navigate the world were bequeathed to you by the civilisation that formed you. You mention slavery: why is it wrong? Because it’s hard to reconcile enslaving others when they are every bit God’s children as you. If you come from a different civilisation without those roots, you’ll come to a different conclusion. Don’t like Jerusalem. Fine, we can go with Athens. The reason we have science and maths and logic is because of the pioneering work of the philosphers you have such disdain for. Even Newton believed he stood on the shoulders of giants. But nah, you’re sui generis. You figured it all out yourself.
@Paul Dowling: you think that religion gave us science? Even now the Catholic Church preaches against condom use in Africa despite the continent being ravaged by HIV. How many has that killed and continues to kill? And the very fact that you are asking me why slavery, owning another person is wrong, says everything about how brainwashed you are. I don’t need to be a genius to know it’s wrong. The bible says you can beat your slaves as much as you want too, just as long as they don’t die from their injuries within a week. What kind of mental gymnastics do you come up with to justify that?
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: your assumptions are totally ahistorical. There is no obvious ought from an is. We are probably born with an inate in-tribe/out-tribe moral sense but beyond that, right and wrong is determined by the values of your civilisation. The Aztecs performed gruesome blood sacrifices at religious festivals, and that was perfectly normal for them. Most of history was fine with slavery until British Christians operating under Christian values fought to outlaw it, so it’s not my mental gymnastics that are the problem, it’s your imprisonment in present modes of thinking.
@Paul Dowling: but other Christians owned slaves and saw it as consistent with their religious beliefs… so self-proclaimed Christians were both pro- and anti-slavery…. Religion, your flexible friend
@Paul Dowling: no you are completely missing the point. The Christian god is supposedly all knowing, right? And the bible is supposedly his words right? So by that definition god is as OK with slavery and genocide now as he was then. Otherwise he would have popped down and given us updated holy books with modern principles and values. But no, he is still playing hide and seek and people are still reading and following a book parts of which are 2000 years old. You can’t have it both ways. Either the bible is the word of God or it isn’t and if it is then he is a genocidal maniac who is OK with slavery and if it isn’t then why the hell is he being worshipped!?
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: firstly, a major theme of the Bibilical narrative is God’s freeing of the Israelites from slavery. It’s hard to miss. Secondly, I have problems myself with how well scripture can represent the Word of God. And also with how salvation can be predicated on belief when there are so many competing alternative explanations for how things are. But I don’t expect everything to just line up for my convenience, and I see far more problems when the whole Christian ediface is discarded. We are living on the fumes of what Christendom created, and someday, those fumes will run out.
@John O’Reilly: ah great man for pointing that out……. smart man
@Allora: Bias……??????….. I’m just stating a fact not “presupposition” !!!!! You can’t presume to know… no more than me, why people identity as Catholic. How do you know why people are ticking boxes!!!!
@Emmet Murphy: If they filled it out honestly… Why don’t you you believe what they stated as their belief???? You might believe it’s a “fairy story”…. Others don’t….. Doesn’t make you right or them wrong!!!! & it’s very presumptuous of you to think you have a monopoly on the truth!!!!
@Billy Davies: so you’re anti contraception, anti ivf, anti same sex marriage then?, those would be acting according to catholic belief .
In % terms yes, but if the population has increased considerably, in actual numbers I would think there’s very little difference.
One of the questions which the article should have raised is where did the massive increase in population come from and the religion, if any, of the immigrant population.
I believe that immigration figures are massively under-reported whether deliberately or otherwise.
@Liam Mernagh: and what is your problem with that?
@Liam Mernagh: Well if people had more babies then we would not need immigration.
@Liam Mernagh: Did you even read the article? It clearly says that the number of Catholics have dropped in both percentage and absolute terms.
I will save you the trouble and even provide the sums for you – there are about 180k fewer Catholics despite population growth of ~380k.
@Dan Dare: why not?
@Kevin Collins: that could just mean that more younger Irish people are seeing sense and distancing themselves from a religious identity. It doesn’t mean that the population has grown purely because of immigration.
@Dan Dare: do we need them?
@Thomas Sheridan: Well it’s that or AI and robots.
Some positive news. Religion poisons everything.
@Allora: go back to reddit.
@averagecitizen: yes you were saying? Just back from reddit.
@Allora: And has caused war and division since the emergence of organised religion.
@Paul Crowley: ya although it has been shown that not as much war as is been claimed. Research shows that but definitely tribalism sexism homophobia misogyny racism & much more harm tban its willing to admit to. Its alsl a completely immoral proposition that if you work for the good of the lord that you will be rewarfed in the next life no matter how ypu behave here. Thats a recipe for immorality.
@Allora: i would love to be rewarfed
@Dave Harris: me too lol.
@Dave Harris: I was rewarfed once. Didn’t like it so I went and got dewarfed.
@Allora: North Korea still suffers under people like you. It was atheism and materialism that murdered over 60 million in the 20th century and still continues to, nothing can compare to your achievements and “progress”. Marx said where atheism begins, communism begins and I think we can all see that today in the kind of laws drafted such as controlling people’s free speech.
@Paul Crowley: The 1st and 2nd world wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, and currently Putin along with other despots.. Etc, etc, etc had nothing to do with religion unlike the aethist regimes of Stalin, Mao, PolPot, etc. War is not the sole domain of religion and to think war and conflict didn’t exist before “religion” (whatever that is!!!!) is utterly bonkers !!!!!
@Sean Donnelly: 60 million killed in the name of atheism , Don’t think so
The Journal loves running articles which bash the church and the wannabe atheists lap it up, it’s like it gives some credibility to their non-Christian lives. The planet is slowly turning into Sodom and Gomorrah.
Tomorrows poll will be, ‘how many people take recreational drugs’? That should keep the stoners happy!
@Abdul Abhaile: you think *that’s* bad! You should see what the Church does to discredit the Church! And what is it with Christians crying “Sodom and Gomorrah” at non-Christians living their lives? Is it what Christianity has become about? Because it sure seems that way.
@Abdul Abhaile: Approx 70% of the worlds population are non Christian. Do their lives lack credibility? Sodom and Gomorrah is a middle eastern myth. Grow up.
@Abdul Abhaile: personally I love a church and it’s sheep followers bashing article aswell. You’re all absolutely mad as a box of frogs. Sky spirits? Repeat that back to yourself there. The Catholic church is a hypocritical, dogmatic, centuries out of date organisation.
@Abdul Abhaile: Care to explain ‘wannabe atheists’?
@Diarmuid Hunt: I suppose it’s someone who wishes to God there wasn’t a God.
@Abdul Abhaile:
Syre Jebus was a stoner, long hair, sandles, preaching peace and love to all men and all that.
@Dermot Lane: What percentage are religious? Sodom and Gomorrah may be biblical cities but they are a real description of what the planet is turning into. If you can’t see that then it’s you who needs to grow up with your childlike brain.
@Abdul Abhaile: “wannabe atheists”? What exactly is that? You either believe in talking snakes, women being created from a mans rib and a pair of every animal on the planet fitting on board a little boat or you don’t.
@Abdul Abhaile: you were doing grand until.yoy threw our S and G.
@Abdul Abhaile: why doesn’t your god smite us then, like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah? because he doesn’t exist, that’s why. A adult believer in a book of fairytale characters like talking snakes, women made out of ribs, talking bushes, talking donkeys and zombies tells a rational person to grow up?
@Abdul Abhaile: Ah, the self-righteous, judgemental condescension of a true catholic. What about being a nice person, have you tried that?
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: two questions: how do you know the ark was a small boat, and does the bible make any reference to the sexual preferences of the animal pairings?
@alan: the bible makes reference to the size of the ark. If you think that it’s big enough to contain 2 of every animal on the planet, never mind the logistics involved, I suggest you reenter education. As for your comment about the sex or sexual preference of the animals, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never mentioned anything even close to that topic.
@Abdul Abhaile: totally agree . Why feel the need to impose your views on others it’s strange . Church did a lot unforgivably wrong but let’s not forget a lot of good people too in the Church too . And gives people like me comfort , it’s not hurting anyone else by saying that .
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: absurd questions about an absurd book. As you were.
@Abdul Abhaile: ANYONE referring to Sodom and Gomorrah in 2023 needs help. Maybe the court dwellers from Castlebar might be of interest to you. Imagine telling someone they have a childlike brain but yet believing Bible stories hahahaha
@JustBEERbarry: I can’t believe someone can make an ignorant comment like this when Jordan Peterson’s series on Genesis has been available on YouTube for free these last 6 or so years.
There was a big campaign ran in the media to try get people to say they had no religion, by putting no religion option at top of the list – strangely the CSO top brass gave in to it – but it obviously failed as still over 90% of population declare a religion.
@Michaela: Did it ever occur to you that they just wanted accurate results?
@Michaela: You’ve got the numbers a bit wrong there. 14.5% selected “no religion” and 6.7% were “not stated” along with 2.4% choosing “other”. That’s almost a quarter of the population not identifying with any form of organised religion in the country.
@Michaela: Religion and maths dont mix well lol.
@Tricia G: Yes, you can expect the gender question to be worded as follows on the next census:
-Prefer not to respond.
-Non-binary/non-conforming.
-Transgender.
-Woman.
-Man.
@Michaela: Can you link to a few of these media campaigns you are referring to?
@Gavin Conran: they don’t exist. Probably say someone talking about it in the comments section of the Irish Times on Facebook and to them that means it’s a media campaign.
About 60% of the population are lying to themselves about being Catholic.
@Padraig: Being Catholic, do you get a cape and special powers?
Vast majority of people who declared Catholic on the census only appear in church on their childrens first communion day dressed to the nines to look well in front of the neighbours.
@Willie Marty: You do realise that you don’t have to go into a church for mass, in order to attend, right?
Despite covid being over, my parents still watch mass online almost every sunday. They much prefer it – it’s more comfortable, less time consuming, and they get to eat breakfast at the same time.
Granted, this doesn’t apply to everyone, but it likely does for a lot of people.
Maybe the number recorded people identifying as non religious should be broken in the censes forms. We would have agnostics, atheists and that figure could be subdivided into Stalinists, Maoists genuine non believers and looking at some of the comments here Catholic haters. Just another fact not reported by the journal of course.Catholic congregations gave 3.5 Million in a Church collection for the relief of suffering in Ukraine last March 12 months.
@choir203: are you OK lovey?
@Derek Moran: I am sorry that you cannot provide a better answer to my comment than you childish question.
@choir203: Stalinists? Maoists? Do you think there are many of these?
I don’t.
@Emit Relevart: well, you kind of do. It’s supposed to be a communal experience. Unless you think Skyping your ageing parents is no different from visiting them in person.
@A D: There was plenty of them before the collapse of the USSR including some characators in Government at one time. Given the hared in some of those comments I would say they are many.
RedC released results of a poll over the weekend
Hardly surprising really considering Ireland is multicultural and multi ethnicity therfor multi religious but besides this the younger generation have no interest in religion of any sort.
@: Time and money are the only 2 things that matter in terms of standing. Religion tho is still a good way to access parts of these main existential essentials. All over the world people who don’t believe that a man-like deity created the universe in 7 days are somehow lunatics. bananas stuff.
@: Well, when your holiday destinations are shag islands can you really blame them?
Take all religious instruction out of schools and use the time for PE or a European language class. If the parents had to bring their kids to prepare for the sacraments in the evening or at the weekend it simply wouldn’t happen.
There was a big campaign ran by anti religion groups and their friends in the media to try minimise the numbers declaring a religion. They even bullied the CSO into ridiculous top option as no religion on the list of choices. They will be distraught that their campaign has failed – with over 90% declaring a religion in 2022.
@Ppppo: i dont recall anybody saying you would be ex communicated if you voted for the repeal, despite what you think. I doubt very much whether any shame at all was felt when people indicated they were not catholic. The people who didnt tick the box of being catholic were likely ashamed to be part of a church which has been so damaging to so many people, with all of the child abuse and mother and baby homes etc etc and the churchs obsession for what goes on in peoples bedrooms
@Ppppo: ah yes the excommunication gang. I was raised a Catholic and tried to leave your church your cut that option for. Wheres my excommunication as i have renounced your church and attack it regularly. During WW2 over 50% of the waffen SS were confessing Catholics including camp guards. Not one of them excommunicated not one nazis excommunication but of course Joseph Goebbels. For being a nazis? No for marrying a non Catholic. Your church does have its standards though.
@Ppppo: You have no way of knowing how anyone actually voted, regardless of what they tell you. That’s not how voting works in this country.
I could tell you I have voted FG my whole life, and you’ve no way of knowing if that’s true or not.
Your idea that people’s religion should be based on how they do or don’t vote is laughable, because the only way to know how they voted, would have been to have a camera trained on them the entire time – something that isn’t allowed in this country, thankfully, as we are reasonably uncorrupt.
@Ppppo: Excommunication is for people that want to get back in.
Anyone that didn’t tick Catholic has probably very little intention of ever wanting to “get back in”.
Your wee club isn’t that popular.
@Michaela: What anti religion groups exactly?
@Ppppo: Excommunication sounds good to me, sign me up for that.
@Ppppo: I have never understood the religious obsession with abortion. If you’ve ever read the bible you’d see your god was found of commiting genocide and ordered murder in his name.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: you’re missing the point if that’s all you took from the Biblical stories. The Christian view is we don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to God, so it matters when life begins. It’s not what’s convenient for me or whether I’m a consenting adult in this or that practice. It’s what’s right in the eyes of God.
@Paul Dowling: well that’s not true Paul now is it? According to the bible we belong to whoever wants to pay for us, God was a big fan of the old slavery as we’ve already discussed elsewhere and you made it clear you were fine with slavery. You also OK with a r@pist marrying his victim as long as he pays her father? Another little gem from the bible. And if we belong to god someone should call social services and have god deemed an unfit father because of the amount of kids he kills daily with cancers and other diseases.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: what are you talking about? When did I say I was ok with slavery? I said one’s ideas of right and wrong come from the values of one’s civilisation. I come from a Judeo-Christian background, so I’ve been brought up to believe slavery is wrong. If you were born into a non-Jewish family in Germany in 1925, do you think you would have modern Western values? Of course not. You would almost certainly have been a willing member of the Hitler Youth by the time you became a teenager.
Nice
When will they release the results showing the growth percentage of the other religions?
@Barry Donnelly: they have.
2% of the reduction is explained by the increase of 100,000 increase in the numbers of ‘non-Irish citizens’ since 2016
@Michaela: if you actually read the article you’d know that is incorrect. Besides a large portion of the numbers you talk about come from very catholic countries.
I’m a recovering Catholic, there’s lots of us
Can’t understand how anyone could believe any of those religions any more than the Tooth fairy or Santa… brought up as Catholic, gave it up at 12… as soon as I told my mother I wasn’t going up to the ‘transmitter’ every Sunday to tell the sky fairy I loved him, my old man stopped too.
@Paul O’Donnell: you may be right. Maybe there is no God. But our entire Western ethical framework is based on Judeo-Christian suppositions such as all people being made in the image and likeness of God. It’s a lot more difficult to argue from first principles why people should be good without this framework.
@Paul Dowling: That’s an argument from ignorance, morality and laws existed long before this Judeo-Christian construct. What are first principles? You need to prove they exist otherwise it is just more suppositional nonsense without a shred of demonstrable evidence.
@Maximus_Demonus: you are making a category error. Evidence is not something you can bring to a discussion on first principles except in a roundabout way. A first principle is an axiom on which the rest of your chain of reasoning depends. It would be something like: might determines right. Or honour is more important than life. Or the needs of the many outweight the needs of the one. You said in a previous post that we should all try to be nice? Why should we be nice to others? Why not kill everyone who gets in your way (if you can get away with it)? Because it’s wrong. Why is it wrong? When you keep asking these questions and get to a point where your answer doesn’t depend on some prior principle, you’ve reached your first principle.
@Maximus_Demonus: All the human rights we extoll today essentially rest on the first principle that we are made in God’s image, but we’ve got rid of God and therefore the first principle goes too. So our human rights rest now on nothing more than a vague empathy that isn’t terribly difficult to dislodge to someone with an interest in dislodging it, like today’s anti-racist movement.
@Paul Dowling: That’s the biggest load of steaming verbal excrement I’ve heard in a long time. The reason we’re nice to each other is because “not being nice” will assure our mutual destruction. This is incredibly basic stuff. Even children can figure this out regardless of what religion their parents indoctrinated them into.
@Maximus_Demonus: do you even have kids? Kids are absolutely brutal towards other kids if they have something they want. Or if there’s something different about them. And they’ll gang up to persecute those they don’t like, unless they’re trained not to by their parents. Christianity aims a little bit higher than simply avoiding mutual destruction. It instructs us to be better people – to even care about those we are perfectly justified in hating, and to forgive those who have wronged us. That goes against our human nature and is why Christianity is so hard.
@Paul Dowling: do you even have kids Paul? if they do they must be little monsters
@Paul Dowling: Utter nonsense, however I’d be very concerned if religion were the only thing preventing humans from bad behaviour. Psychopaths on a leash are never good for any society. Not to worry though, most religions will disappear within 50 years.
Identifying as Catholic is false / fake. It’s much, much, much lower than 69% for authentic practicing traditional Catholics, I.e. people that voted no in the abortion referendum, go to Mass at least once a week, go to Confessions, abide by the 10 Commandments, say the rosary etc. etc.
And most of the 69% will be nothing more than mere cultural catholics.
The church state collision has been alot of hidden skeletons . Greasy fingers ffg have feathered their own nests while using the Catholic doctorate to control any dissenting.
@Robert Halvey: My god…. The mind boggles at the sheer imagination of some people!!!!
@Jerriko17: I know, imagine believing in sky fairies and immaculate conceptions lolol
@JustBEERbarry: You love saying sky fairies and what grown-asx man writes lolol at the end of his comments?
@Abdul Abhaile: what grown ass person believes in a man in the clouds who can control everything, except murder and child rape in his name
@Abdul Abhaile: are you getting a little tetchy about your sky fairy god carry on? Go outside, look at the sun, inhale some oxygen. It might help. And ps…lololololololol
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: US conservative talk radio host Dennis Prager poses a question to atheists: do you at least hope that you’re wrong and that there is a just God behind creation? We are living in a relatively nice period of history. Most people’s lives throughout history were full of hunger, disease, war and grief. Wouldn’t you want them to have something better waiting for them in an afterlife and for those who perpetrate evil in this world to face justice in the next?
@Paul Dowling: well if there is a god behind all of this he certainly is not a just god. I don’t want to Parrot Stephen Fry when he spoke to Gay Byrne and was asked a similar question but if there is a god he is certainly not just or good. And if its the god of Abraham that Christians and Muslims believe I’d go so far as to say he’s an evil god. Either way he’s an absent and fairly impotent god. I can tell you this. If there are pearly gates with an angel deciding who gets in based on how they lived their lives I’d fancy my chances, and most atheists chances over your average Christian.
@Paul Dowling: and yes, it would be nice to think that there is something better after all of this but there is no evidence for it.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: there are many ways of looking at this. Maybe God’s plan is bigger than just this plane of existence. We’re only here for 80 odd years if we’re lucky. Maybe it’s worth a bit of suffering for that relatively short period, compared with eternity, if it means we get to exercise our free will in the here and now.
@Paul Dowling: well I won’t go to the estate agent and buy a house based on the fact that I might win the lottery this week. It’s a similar principle with Christianity. I won’t worship a god who had committed many evil acts and demands others to do so also just on the off chance he’d see me as a suitable yes man for his kingdom after death. Who’d want to live with a genocidal sociopath anyway. But back in the real world there is ZERO and I mean zero evidence that he exists. If he did he’d surely make himself kmown and say forget all that crazy stuff in Leviticas and Dutoronomy, I was smoking weird stuff those days. Focus more on the whole love thy neighbour bit. I’m still waiting for him to show up.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: currently I’m officially agnostic but, like Agent Milder, I want to believe. I ask God that, if He exists, He help me towards some kind of faith. If He does, I’m not sure it’s evidence that will be the deciding factor. Evidence can only help us understand this reality, not the spiritual realm. What I think (and hope) will happen is that I have some sort of gestalt switch where I see the world in a completely new way, the same way you can see an old or a young woman in rhat picture that does the rounds on the interwebs every so often, depending on your perspective. Without God, all is permitted.
Keep falling
Hard to believe so many people still that an imaginary friend guide them from the sky.
The only good thing the church gave us is the nice architecture you can find in mainland Europe.
@Yvon Queguiner: What’s better? Darwin’s view is that atoms just dropped out of the sky.
I religiously follow Munster. Does that count?
@ciaran enright: Munster won’t save your Soul .
Catholic? I think you mean Roman Catholic. A significant portion of the Protestant community would consider themselves Catholic, just not Roman Catholic.
@Dan Dare: I am technically protestant, I have yet to meet any irish protestant that identifies as being catholic!
@Dramafree 2023: I am also technically a Protestant- remember the Creed “a member of one Catholic and Apostolic Church”. ? We are Catholic not Roman Catholic.
@Ali murray: so did you tick catholic in the census??
@Dramafree 2023: nope. Presumed they meant Roman Catholic.
@Dan Dare: I think you’re getting Christianity mixed up with Catholicism.
@Pat Barry: Quote from the Church of Ireland who trace themselves back to St. Patrick: “1. Is the Church of Ireland Protestant or Catholic?
It is both Protestant and Catholic. For this reason it is incorrect to refer to members of the Church of Ireland as ‘non–Catholic’.
The terms Protestant and Catholic are not really opposites.
There are Catholics who accept the universal jurisdiction of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome. Often in consequence they are called Roman Catholics. But there are other Catholics who do not accept the Pope’s jurisdiction or certain doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Some are called Protestant or Reformed Catholics. Among them are members of the Church of Ireland and the other Churches of the Anglican Communion.
It follows therefore that the terms ‘Protestant’ and ‘Reformed’ should be contrasted with ‘Roman’ and not with ‘Catholic’.”
@Dan Dare: Oh right, but what about Dramafree’a comment above? Aren’t most Catholics Roman Catholics apart from some in Eastern Europe? Catholics, not just Roman Catholics, firmly hold up the authority of the Pope.
Now do a report on the numbers of people who come here and bring their imaginary friend with them
@Richie Donegan: Darwin believed atoms just dropped from the sky
All the atheists getting triggered.
I can understand someone born and raised without religion but these Born Again Atheists are the worst lot, they’re like ex-smokers who love telling the people what’s best for them. If you’ve kept your faith they think there’s something wrong with you.
I guarantee you, when lying on their death beds, they’ll soon be praying to the God they kicked out of their lives so they can live another while longer.
@Abdul Abhaile: A bit like a devout person diagnosed with terminal cancer, Doctor says “I can give you Chemo that will keep you alive but in pain for another year or you can do nothing and you’ll be in Heaven in 3 months” Guess which most of them choose, even popes and bishops? As for the idea atheists somehow find god on their deathbed, that’s nonsense, just like the cliche “No atheists in foxholes” is also nonsense. One would assume, by your logic, that in a plane falling from the sky towards the sea everyone would be praying for safety, yet there is not one instance ever of those prayers making any difference. Praying to imaginary friends achieves nothing, it never has,m it never will
@Abdul Abhaile: you mean the ones that go around door to door telling you what to believe. and have weekly meetings where they tell people how to live their life and scorn those who dont fit in?
I have serious doubts about the Census when so many (nearly two million) claim to speak Irish well – I honestly can say (excluding the odd teacher) I do not know anyone who uses Irish. The guy handing out the census forms said he was never asked for one or heard of anyone requesting one in Irish.
@Irish to the core: I’m guessing that would very much depend on where you live. I’m sure there is a lot more interest in the Irish bit in the west and North West. I think the number is high too but that’s probably more to do with people spoofing than the census itself.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh:
GEARÓID- Fair enuff – but if people don’t tell the truth then it will be too late to do anything – Any policy makers would view those figures as healthy. In reality it is in sharp decline (islands depopulating etc.)
If people saw the real numbers I would think it would send a shiver.
p.s. I live in the WEST – #honthebanner
SF won’t be happy
@zephyrum: they’ll be happy if the IRA tells them to be happy.
Surprised that the number of people in the 6 counties who identify as “Northern Irish only” is so high.
I’m a Roman Catholic, and have been since before I was born.
If people don’t believe in Jesus that’s fine it’s your own belief. We are living in a free country but make sure you dont get your kids the sacerments like First Holy communion and confirmation. Its a rather sad life when you think it all ends on this world, like going to a funeral and well thinking thats the end of him or her. There spirit lives on and we will see them in the next life in Gods kingdom.
Atheists don’t make me laugh go crab fishing on the bearing sea and you will be praying
@john mac: maybe the atheists you know just arent funny.
Great to see the Muslim population growing so fast. I’m sure everything will be just fine.
Religion. The “cause of” and “reason for” most conflict on Earth. It should be banned along with the vapes
@Lord Sea: that assumes one religion is as good (or bad) as another.
How much %speaks Polish? Or Russian, or even Arabic and urdu?
.
@Dave Mercedes2: a lot to digest on that comment there Dave
One thing about Ireland, it is a relatively conservative country.
What about the % for other religions then?
We found out how many people were real catholics (christians) 5 years ago.
How many are practicing catholics (Christmas, weddings, funerals don’t count), I’d say split that percent down the middle.
As they say “you’ll never find an atheist in a fox hole”.
@DERRY1973: because something is a cliche doesn’t mean it’s true. And this is not true.By the same logic you use, millions of christians died in foxhole, praying for survival. How id that pan out? I’ll tell you: it turned out the same as it did for Gods chosen people in Auschwitz. They died. “If there is a God, He will have to beg my forgiveness.” is a quote that supposedly appears on the walls of the jails of Mauthausen concentration camp. whether it’s genuinely written by a prisoner, no one knows, but that IS truth right there.
@DERRY1973: That has been demonstrated to be completely false. Not exactly the best advertisement for religion when fear is the main motivation, now is it?
@Maximus_Demonus: you have a point. I struggle with the idea of a just God consigning people to unimaginable torment for all eternity, no matter what their crime was, much less for simply not being convinced by the Christian message. But at the same time, fear of consequences is a necessary component in the formation of moral character. A child fears their parent’s response if they hit their sibling. When the child grows up, s/he gains more autonomy, but they will be less inclined to let themselves get away with little transgressions if they think God is keeping an eye on them.
@Maximus_Demonus: who’s advertising Religion, I’m just stating a fact, whether you agree or not is irrelevant.
@DERRY1973: but you’re not stating a fact! It’s not true.
just over 7% each, Longford and Wexford had the highest percentage of divorced and separated people.
Lovely Longford
@ibrahim Sudane: Nobody lives in Longford so that wouldn’t be hard.
Let’s look at the details, we have 1800 Jedi Knights to protect us from the Satanist’s and Scientologists .
I’m not surprised. Lots more say they’re catholic, but haven’t seen the inside of a church in years. I am not catholic anymore, but apparently, there’s no way to actually, legally leave. They’ll still claim your soul as catholic.
One of the most thumbed up comments makes a claim about liberal Ireland as land of ‘soddom and Gomorrah’…hmmm I’m fairly sure same sex attraction, existed just like opposite sex long before the largely undemocratic arrival of organised religion, if thats what that’s driving at. In other words, get a life
Actually thought it would be even lower than 30%….no too many people have any respect for the church anymore
Defining one’s religion by belief or practice is a extremely protestant definition. So extreme that most protestant denominations here would not use it. Catholicism defines membership sacramentally i.e. everyone baptised a Catholic is a member. Judaism defines membership ethnically – everyone with a Jewish mother is a Jew. Hunan rights law says that identification is entirely to be decided by the individual and the community concerned, i.e. you are a Catholic is you consider yourself a Catholic and the Catholic community and church accept you are a member. It’s nobody else’s business. Religious identity is for many about more than religion – it’s about a social political identity. Leave people define themselves as they wish and get over it.
Media is happy
No mention of Dudeism
I have a copy of the Epstein Flight log…
go to http://www.realchiefpolice.com or
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/truther
Jedi Knight myself according to the CSO
have your say