There has been a big rise in the number of farm families who say religious services have been cut in their area.

More than 1,500 people took part in the poll.

People of all ages and faiths are being asked to choose their favourite traditional prayer and to compose a prayer of their own for the protection of the environment.

The sold-out Electric Picnic, which heralds the end of the summer and had Hozier play a surprise gig, came to an electrifying close last night with The Prodigy and their ‘Firestarter’.

Watch the moment here:

Catholic marriage counselling group Accord will open it's services to same-sex couples.

At Masses throughout the country yesterday, bishops petitioned parishioners to vote against repealing the Eighth Amendment, with one saying that society has been “walking with our eyes closed into an era of eugenics”.

The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin has spoken of a “new reality” of fewer priests, the questionable viability of some churches, and the need for a “radical reappraisal” of parish communities.

One in five couples say technology is interfering with their relationship.

Texting and internet use are causing problems in marriages, according to research from Accord, the Catholic Marriage Care Service.

The Government has rejected claims that State funding for marriage preparation courses provided by the Catholic support agency Accord was withdrawn because of the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

The Government is denying that funding for Catholic counselling service Accord, which provides marriage preparation courses, has been cut because of the church's position on the marriage referendum.

Significantly fewer Irish people believe that a couple who have a child ought to be married — but more consider marriage to be a life-long commitment.

The Catholic counseling service Accord has released results of a survey on marriage that found that fewer than one in three people think that "couples who have children ought to be married".

Hundreds of mourners have attended the funerals of the victims of last week’s horror car crash which took the lives of four young women in Kildare.

The Catholic Church is facing a critical shortage of clergy after losing one in five of its diocesan priests in just five years.

The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin is asking men across the country to consider the possibility of becoming a priest.

The bishops were quick out of the blocks last week to smite the proposed referendum on same-sex marriage.

THE decision by the Taoiseach to publicly support same-sex marriage will mean he is about to have a fight on his hands, firstly from conservative Fine Gael backbenchers but, more volubly, from the leaders of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Last Sunday they were in their local church, full of excitement and energy as they helped their grandmother collect leaflets and tidy up; yesterday they were buried side by side in the graveyard outside as their mother Kathleen, other family, friends, and community looked on.

Two young brothers who were so close they shared a bed were buried side by side today as their father appeared in court charged with their murders.

Ireland’s newest and youngest Catholic bishop has used his appointment to weigh into the abortion controversy.