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Owing to a variety of complex historical and socio-cultural factors, the Irish education system remains heavily influenced by denominational mores and values [Ferriter, D. 2012. "Occasions of Sin: Sex & Society in Modern Ireland." London: Profile Books], particularly those of the Roman Catholic Church [O'Toole, B. 2015. "1831-2014: An Opportunity to Get it Right This Time? Some Thoughts on the Current Debate on Patronage and Religious Education in Irish Primary in Primary Schools: Reflections from the Republic of Ireland." "Irish Educational Studies" 34 (1): 89-102. doi:10.1080/03323315.2015.1010704; Faas, D., M. Darmody, and B. Sokolowska. 2016. "Religious Diversity in Primary Schools: Reflections from the Republic of Ireland." "British Journal of Religious Education" 38 (1): 83-98]. Unsurprisingly, with the declaration by the Church that homosexuality was "intrinsically disordered" [Libreria Edittrice Vaticana. 2003. "Roman Catholic Catechism." Accessed January 18 2013. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm], the professional identity and practice of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teachers working in denominational schools is often (in)formed by fear, as well as perceived, or actual, harassment and discrimination [Gowran, S. 2004. "The Experiences of Gay and Lesbian Teachers in Irish Schools." In "Primary Voices", edited by J. Deegan, D. Devine, and A. Lodge, 37-56. Dublin: IPA; Fahie, D. 2016. "Spectacularly Exposed and Vulnerable--How Irish Equality Legislation Subverted the Personal and Professional Security of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teachers." "Sexualities"]. This paper examines the lived-experience of 23 self-identified LGB teachers who work(ed) in Irish Roman Catholic primary schools. Their unique experiences and perspectives of faith-based schooling are examined against a backdrop of the complex processes of rationalisation and reflexivity these teachers undertake as they endeavour to reconcile their sense of personal integrity--as members of the LGB community--with their professional responsibilities. The study draws particular attention to those LGB teachers who hold deeply felt, and sincere, beliefs in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church but who, nonetheless, express a level of discomfort at the language and tone of church dogma in respect of minority sexualities.

The decline of religious observance in Irish society has coincided with the strengthening of the exclusionary prerogatives of state-funded denominational schools. The implementation of a "Catholics first" policy in many schools, as underpinned by legislation, suggests that increasing religious diversity in the State has led to an abandonment of the historical acceptance that schools in receipt of public funding would not exclude non-coreligionists. It therefore casts doubt on the viability of individual religious freedom within the long-standing framework of the denominational education model. This stance, as well as the reaffirmed commitment of the Catholic Church to the unimpeded inculcation of religious doctrines in its schools, has been defended with reference to dubious normative invocations of pluralism and religious freedom. This article argues that the conception of pluralism invoked by those defending the denominational education model in its current form fails to command normative legitimacy due to its non-universal, particularist and essentially communitarian scope. It also suggests that this conception is nonetheless broadly resonant with the Constitution, which, it is argued, itself configures religious freedom principles as a function of the power relations between religious groups. (Contains 13 notes.)

The Good Friday Agreement (1998) between the UK and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, heralded a significant step forward in securing peace and stability for this troubled region of the British Isles. From the new-found stability, the previous fits and starts of education reform were replaced by a determination for modernisation and innovation, infused with a new energy and momentum. This sense of purpose embraced a complex weave of ideas and ideals; all designed variously to smooth, celebrate and harness community differences for the collective good. Much progress has been made in the intervening years since 1998, particularly in political structures and relationships. However, the euphoria of the new dawn of the Agreement had barely begun to shape the future before entrenched "tribal" tensions reproduced the same political and legislative impasses of former years and visited their all-too-familiar blight on the economic, cultural and educational landscapes. This paper focuses on two signature dimensions of education that have been sustained by this partisanship: segregation by religion and segregation by academic selection.

This paper examines the perceived influence of parents and family and the construction of national and religious identification amongst adolescents theoretically sampled from along the border between the Irish Republic and the Northern Ireland. Two hundred and sixty-one young people wrote essays on the meaning of their national identity and the influence of parents, families and the border on national and religious identities. Lengthy and detailed responses were subjected to a grounded analysis. Results revealed the complexity of young people's identification processes and their opinions and experiences of religious and national socialization. The majority of respondents attached a great deal of significance to their national identity. Identity was represented across a range of meanings including sport, government policy, culture, folklore and characteristics thought typical of a given nationality. Diversity was valued though national and religious categories were defined exclusively. Parents and family were viewed as important sources of socialization and the intergenerational transmission of identity was viewed as natural and inevitable. There was a widespread belief that national and religious identity overlapped and though many asserted that religion could promote tolerance and inclusion there was an implicit acceptance that it could also fuel intergroup hostilities.

The moral and practical regulation of sexuality and associated risk has been in some ways traditionally bound by Catholic religious doctrine in the Republic of Ireland. Over the last century, however, the emergence of professional social work as a state risk management strategy around sexuality is evident. This tallies with the disrepute of the Church following high-profile abuse scandals and publicized tragedies tied to institutional segregation. This paper presents theoretically informed critical commentary, through uptake of the Foucauldian notion of discourse. It concludes that critique of the regulation of sexuality, should be qualified on three counts. Firstly, tensions between Catholicism and social work remain. Secondly, wariness towards the operation of power is requisite. Thirdly, both that which is said, and unsaid, enlightens present debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that discourse on community as a socio-political problem needs to be located within historical, institutional, and socio-structural contexts if it is to be properly understood. In particular, it suggests that the role of religion in promoting forms of communitarian discourse and practice needs to be given greater attention than it has hitherto received within the social sciences. The article pursues this argument through examination of the religious discourse on community cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By providing an analysis of its role in Catholic responses to three major socio-political crises in Ireland between the 1890s and 1960s, the paper suggests that not only does socio-religious discourse on community constitute a powerful alternative to secular social-scientific discourses, but that such discourse is particularly effective in helping to constitute specific groups as communities, given favourable sociological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of a clash of symbols not only represents a conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, but also the relationship between groups of Protestants, moderates and extremists, who find themselves on opposing sides of the political arena today. This paper suggests that different groups of Protestants have conflicting images of God and of the meaning of religion for their lives, and that these clashing symbols impact significantly upon their political beliefs and positions. The data presented are taken from interviews with Protestant politicians in Ulster during the summer of 1986. Not only are there strong denominational and frequency of practice differences among the pa flies, there are also significant differences on religious belief variables such as orthodoxy, views on ecumenism, and image of God. A large majority of these elites consciously link their political views to their religious views, though they do so in significantly different ways. These religious views are not linked to economic ideological positions, but they are tied to views on moral issues and views on South Africa, as well as to willingness to cooperate with Roman Catholic nationalists politically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant chaplains are key mediators in the Catholic Church's ministry to its mobile flock. In this article we draw on field-work with migrant chaplains in Ireland, scholarship in transnationalism and Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital to examine the transnational and local relations by which this ministry is shaped. Three themes are addressed: first, how the dispositions or positions of migrant chaplains as visitors or guests are produced in the negotiation of nationally inflected religious capital; second, the ways in which migrant chaplains challenge the Catholic Church field as manifest in Ireland via calls for recognition of migrant church religious capital; and third, the ways in which the Catholic Church as a universal church reinstates the logic of the Catholic Church religious field across national differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are strong theoretical reasons for hypothesizing that those sections of the population who are most exposed to modernization processes are more likely to marry outside their own religious group. We examine this for Catholic-Protestant intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland. We use a multivariate analysis on survey data to test the hypotheses that urban dwellers, persons of non-farming parents, persons with higher levels of education and the young are more likely to be religiously intermarried. While the odds of being in an intermarriage are greater for urban dwellers, this is in large part due to their being non-farmers. The farming effect is not necessarily related to religiosity. The odds of being in an intermarriage do not increase significantly for persons with third level education and this can be explained in terms of the marriage market for minority groups. It is shown that the historical context and the minority position of religious group should be taken into account in explanations which relate modernization to the pattern of religious intermarriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores changes in religious behavior associated with the great famine of the 1840s in Ireland, which triggered the process of modernization in the country. Analysis of church attendance rates among Catholics in several rural areas ; Relationship between the canonical and the customary aspects of Irish peasant religion; Increase in the extent to which Catholics performed their religious obligations after the famine.