Ireland in the Twenty-first Century: Secularization or Religious Vitality?

Ireland appears to be a country where religion matters. It is therefore not surprising that Ireland has long been considered the Western European exception to secularization. Catholicism is a key defining feature in the history of Ireland, is imprinted in Irish culture and is intertwined with personal identities of Irish people. It plays crucial role in creation of a strong national and cultural Irish identity. The Catholic Church also started to change its perception of its role in Irish society. Secularization is a complex process which cannot be confined to just a macrostructural or micro-individual level. Ireland's exceptional strong resistance to secularization slowly started to break down when the Irish State initiated the move to industrialization in the late 1950s. The 1960s was the starting point for many of social and political changes that triggered the initial secularization of Irish institutions and organizations. The Church's access to the educational field has been central in its efforts to ward off secularization.