The Emerald Revival: Catholicism Surges in Modern Ireland
The spirit of St. Patrick seems to be moving again in the Emerald Isle, according to recent statistics. According to a report from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference out this month, just in time for the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, weekly Mass attendance among the Irish is on the rise. In 2023, data and analytics firm Amárach revealed that only about 14 percent of the Irish population regularly attends Sunday Mass, an abysmal number attributed largely to COVID-19-era lockdowns, but inextricably linked to an aging population, a ruthlessly secular society, and the mass importing of non-Christian populations, largely hailing from the third world.
Over the course of the succeeding three years, according to the bishops’ report, the share of Irish attending weekly Mass has more than doubled, now standing at 31 percent. This statistic now ranks Ireland fourth in Europe for weekly Mass attendance among Catholics (behind Poland at 49 percent, Slovakia at 46 percent, and roughly alongside Italy at 32 percent). Among Christians overall, weekly service attendance stands at 23 percent, placing Catholics well above the average. Of particular importance, weekly Mass attendance among young Catholics (those aged 16 to 29) has spiked by ten points, rising from a mere seven percent between 2020 and 2022 to 17 percent by the end of 2024.
Persecution has never yet succeeded in stamping out the Faith … as nearly two thousand years … have demonstrated.
Additionally, the Irish bishops found that over a third (34 percent) of Irish Catholics report praying daily, second only to Catholics in Portugal (37 percent). Among young Catholics, daily prayer trends are identical to weekly Mass attendance trends (17 percent).
While a 31 percent Mass attendance rate is still relatively low from a Catholic perspective (one would hope that all Catholics attend Mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation), the surge in Mass attendance and daily prayer habits is worth celebrating.
Ireland has long been one of the most fiercely, devoutly Catholic nations in the world, ever since St. Patrick earned the title of Apostle of Ireland by introducing Christianity to the island in the fifth century. From then on, Catholicism dominated, weathering Norse pagan raids, British imperialism and the resulting persecution, famine, poverty, and countless hardships besides. But the faithful began to drift towards the end of the 20th century, while godless secularism rose to replace Christianity as the dominant ideological and spiritual force influencing Irish society.
There is much today in Ireland which St. Patrick — and the sizable host of Irish Saints: Mél of Ardagh, Banban the Wise, Beoc, Brendan the Voyager, Brigit of Kildare, Dalua of Tibradden, Díchu mac Trichim, the martyr Órán, Ciarán of Saigir, Brendan of Birr, Columbanus, Laurence O’Toole, Charles of Mount Argus, Oliver Plunkett, and many more besides — would no doubt condemn as heresy, blasphemy, and degeneracy. The LGBT agenda has rampaged through the nation’s institutions, establishing itself as an untouchable sacred cow. Irish denizens who trace their lineages back to before the coming of Patrick are displaced and sidelined in favor of Muslim and Hindu foreigners. Abortion consumes the Irish unborn with impunity — in fact, with state protections.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Faith does not flourish in the absence of trial and hardship, but in spite of it. Persecution has never yet succeeded in stamping out the Faith, as nearly two thousand years — from Nero and Diocletian to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin — have demonstrated. Of course, the first example one must cite is that of Christ Himself: beaten, bloodied, crucified, and buried, He conquered death itself. As the Catholic author Flannery O’Connor (an American of Irish descent) so wisely observed, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.” Godless secularism will not succeed where so many empires, regimes, dictatorships, genocides, and persecutions have failed. Catholics will do as Christ instructed: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
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