OUR FATHER

An article by Nuala O’Faolain from the ’80s looked at communions and confirmations, and Ireland’s wishy-washy atheism, where parents do not practice, but ‘go along with it’ for the kids.

It seems strange, 30 years later, to see the abundance of white dresses and hair gel still so prolific. After the revelations of the intervening decades, and the rapid secularisation of Ireland’s laws, it would be reasonable to expect the children undergoing religious ceremonies to be in the minority. And yet.

78% of the population claimed to be Roman Catholic in the 2016 census. No one suggests that to be RC you need to be at Mass every Sunday, but it’s a stretch to say that even half that number would declare themselves to be Catholic.

Traditions are borne, sometimes, of religion. St Patrick’s Day is no more to do with a saint than it has to do with abstinence, and the crucifixion features little in ads for chocolate eggs come April. Is that a problem though?

Is the communion celebration a habit or a conviction?