RELIGIOUS INTERMARRIAGE IN DUBLIN: THE IMPORTANCE OF STATUS BOUNDARIES BETWEEN RELIGIOUS GROUPS.

Intermarriage has long been recognized as one of the most robust boundaries between groups. This continues to be the case in the Republic of Ireland for inter - marriage between Catholics and Protestants. This paper uses data from the Census of Population (1991) and loglinear modeling to examine religious, educational and class homogamy in Dublin. The main question which is posed is whether there is any evidence of social exchange between the characteristics of religion and level of education or class, which husbands and wives bring to their marriages. This question is a development on research on social exchange in ethnic and racial intermarriage. It is particularly interesting to look at the possibility of this type of exchange in marriage in Ireland given the traditional differences in social status between the religious groups. Our results show that the association between (i) the educational levels and (ii) the current class of husbands and their wives is weaker for marriages of the type Catholic husband/Protestant wife than it is for homogamous Catholic marriages. Protestants still enjoy high status and this appears to make it easier for Protestant, compared to Catholic, women of low education or manual class to marry Catholic husbands of high education or professional class. A knowledge of the status dimension to religious groups can therefore contribute to our under - Standing of the pattern of religious intermarriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]