Opinion
Is Ireland facing a secular future?
With the numbers of Catholics on the decline it seems Ireland is on the way to facing a secular future, the percentage who identified as Catholic on the census falling from 84.2 percent in 2011 to 78.3 percent in 2016. There has also been a corresponding rise in the number of those with no religion, growing by 73.6 percent. Those with no religion now accounting for 10 percent of the population compared to 6% five years ago.